Autopsy Results Provide ​‘Virtual Medical Certainty’ that Prisoners will Experience ​‘Excruciating Pain’ During Federal Executions

As the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment began to car­ry out the sec­ond round of exe­cu­tions it has sched­uled for 2020, autop­sy results from the first round of exe­cu­tions in July sug­gest to a ​“vir­tu­al med­ical cer­tain­ty” that fed­er­al death-row pris­on­ers will expe­ri­ence ​“excru­ci­at­ing pain” while they are being put to death by lethal injec­tion with pentobarbital.

An autop­sy of Wesley Purkey (pic­tured), autho­rized by Purkey’s next-of-kin and con­duct­ed by Western Michigan University foren­sic pathol­o­gist Joyce L. deJong, found that Purkey suf­fered “[s]evere bilat­er­al acute pul­monary ede­ma” dur­ing his exe­cu­tion on July 17. Reviewing the autop­sy results, Dr. Gail Van Norman — an expert for the death-row pris­on­ers who are chal­leng­ing the fed­er­al exe­cu­tion pro­to­col — said Purkey had expe­ri­enced ​“flash pul­monary ede­ma,” a con­di­tion that can occur only when a per­son is still alive. Purkey’s autop­sy results were con­sis­tent with those of oth­er pris­on­ers exe­cut­ed with pen­to­bar­bi­tal, Van Norman said. The results, she said, affirmed the opin­ion she had pro­vid­ed before the exe­cu­tion that ​“pre­mortem flash pul­monary ede­ma is a vir­tu­al med­ical cer­tain­ty in any exe­cu­tion car­ried out” under the fed­er­al government’s pen­to­bar­bi­tal lethal-injection protocol.

Van Normal said the pris­on­ers would expe­ri­ence a sen­sa­tion ​“iden­ti­cal to that report­ed by vic­tims of near drown­ing or suf­fo­ca­tion” like that pro­duced dur­ing ​“enhanced inter­ro­ga­tions” such as water­board­ing. ​“These are among the most excru­ci­at­ing feel­ings known to man,” she said. ​“Prisoners exe­cut­ed by lethal injec­tion in accor­dance with the Federal Protocol remain sen­sate and able to expe­ri­ence the extreme pain and suf­fer­ing relat­ed to the occur­rence of flash pul­monary ede­ma,” Van Norman said.

Dr. DeJong’s autop­sy report­ed evi­dence of “[f]rothy pul­monary ede­ma” in Purkey’s tra­chea and main­stem bronchi, mean­ing that flu­id had built up in both of his lungs and spilled into his air­ways dur­ing the exe­cu­tion. Dr. Van Norman said the autop­sy results showed that Purkey’s lungs increased in weight to ​“between 2.73 and 4.3 times that of nor­mal lungs” as a result of the fluid build-up.

Federal pros­e­cu­tors said that the three fed­er­al exe­cu­tions in July ​“were imple­ment­ed with­out any pen­to­bar­bi­tal-relat­ed com­pli­ca­tions” and were ​“humane.”

The gov­ern­ment exe­cut­ed Lezmond Mitchell August 26 and has sched­uled the exe­cu­tion of Keith Nelson for August 28.