New DPIC Podcast Discusses the Consequences and Cruelty of Lethal Injection

In the December 2020 episode of Discussions with DPIC, anes­the­si­ol­o­gist Dr. Joel Zivot from Emory University Hospital speaks with Death Penalty Information Center Executive Director Robert Dunham about his dis­cov­er­ies from the autop­sies of more than 200 exe­cut­ed pris­on­ers. Those autop­sies revealed the grue­some effects of exe­cu­tion by lethal injec­tion and shat­tered the pop­u­lar myth that lethal injec­tion is a humane and pain­less exe­cu­tion process. Zivot and Dunham also dis­cuss the eth­i­cal ques­tions raised by physi­cian par­tic­i­pa­tion in executions.

In 2016, Zivot was approached by lawyers rep­re­sent­ing cap­i­tal defen­dants, who asked him to exam­ine autop­sy reports to deter­mine whether there was enough anes­thet­ic in the pris­on­ers’ blood­streams to ren­der them ful­ly uncon­scious dur­ing their exe­cu­tions. Zivot was sur­prised to dis­cov­er that ​“the weight of the lungs was about twice nor­mal of what I would expect to have hap­pened if death was instan­ta­neous.” He has since tes­ti­fied about his find­ings in mul­ti­ple states, and the results of his research were fea­tured in a September 2020 National Public Radio report, ​“Gasping for Air.”

Zivot con­trasts the ​“blood­less” appear­ance of lethal-injec­tion exe­cu­tions with the real­i­ty of what he found in the autop­sies. The dis­cov­ery that pris­on­ers’ lungs were fill­ing with flu­id and caus­ing a sen­sa­tion of drown­ing or suf­fo­cat­ing ​“con­firmed my worst fears about what was actu­al­ly hap­pen­ing here.” These effects were found both in three-drug exe­cu­tions, and in one-drug exe­cu­tions, lead­ing Zivot to believe it was the first drug that caused the lung tis­sue to break down and allow flu­id to fill the lungs. The effect of the drugs was pre­vi­ous­ly unknown because exe­cu­tions use them in quan­ti­ties that are unprece­dent­ed in a medical setting.

In dis­cussing the ethics of lethal injec­tion, Zivot states, ​“lethal injec­tion is in no way a med­ical act,” and says he believes states use the appear­ance of med­i­cine to reas­sure the pub­lic about the process. ​“Physicians, or any oth­er health­care work­ers have no role here what­so­ev­er in mak­ing exe­cu­tion dif­fer­ent or even ​‘bet­ter’ than it could pos­si­bly be. That’s not the job of the doc­tor. That’s the job of the state,” Zivot said. He offered his assess­ment of lethal injec­tion, say­ing, ​“I feel con­fi­dent that my work has shown that exe­cu­tion by lethal injec­tion is clear­ly and unam­bigu­ous­ly cru­el. If the state wish­es to exe­cute indi­vid­u­als, that’s the state’s pre­rog­a­tive. But I would ask them to stay away from every­thing that is mine, every­thing that is med­i­cine, that cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment does not require lethal injection.”