A num­ber of states are grap­pling with the ques­tion of whether the lethal injec­tion drug Pavulon, also known as pan­curo­ni­um bro­mide, par­a­lyzes a con­demned inmate’s mus­cles in a way that masks hor­rif­ic pain felt dur­ing an exe­cu­tion, a side-effect that experts say could vio­late of the Eighth Amendment’s ban on cru­el and unusu­al pun­ish­ment. The Tennessee Supreme Court heard argu­ments about this issue in a death row case in June 2005 and a sim­i­lar case is expect­ed to reach the Kentucky Supreme Court soon. In May 2005, a Missouri inmate was giv­en a last minute stay so that the U.S. Supreme Court could review his death penal­ty pro­ce­dure case. His claim was denied 5 – 4, and he was later executed. 

Opponents of Pavulon say the drug could ren­der the most wide­ly-used lethal injec­tion pro­cee­dure in the U.S. uncon­sti­tu­tion­al, not­ing that the par­a­lyz­ing drug has been banned by the American Veterinary Medical Association for ani­mal euthana­sia because it can mask any signs that an anes­thet­ic has failed to work. During the lethal injec­tion process, the first drug admin­is­tered is an anes­thet­ic that puts an inmate to sleep. Pavulon is the sec­ond drug used and it is designed to par­a­lyze the per­son­’s mus­cle sys­tem. The third drug, potas­si­um chlo­ride, stops the heart. A University of Miami study of autop­sy tox­i­col­o­gy report data in 49 U.S. exe­cu­tions using Pavulon revealed that 21 of those inmates were prob­a­bly con­scious when they received potas­si­um chlo­ride, which meant that Pavulon had masked the abil­i­ty to deter­mine if there was pain and suf­fer­ing. (The Tennessean, July 5, 2005). See Methods of Execution.

Citation Guide