As Oklahoma prepared to carry out its first execution on January 15 since the botched execution of Clayton Lockett in April 2014, anesthesiologist Dr. Mark Heath of Columbia University Medical School expressed serious concerns about the drugs it will use, particularly one that paralyzes the inmate: “Oklahoma and other states … should abandon the barbaric use of paralyzing drugs entirely.” He explained that when the prisoner is given paralytic drugs, he “will die of suffocation whether they are unconscious or they are wide awake.” Dr. Heath also criticized the use of midazolam, which Oklahoma plans to use again, despite the problems in multiple states with that drug in 2014. He said it is particularly ill-suited as the first lethal injection drug because it is a weaker anesthetic than barbiturates, such as pentobarbital. In an op-ed, he concluded, “Oklahoma and other states should not be executing prisoners with midazolam; they should not proceed in the absence of qualified medical practitioners; they should only use FDA-approved drugs, and they should abandon the barbaric, outmoded and unnecessary use of chemical paralysis – ….The public and the courts could then return their attention to the more important questions and debate surrounding the death penalty enterprise.”

Florida has also scheduled an execution for January 15, using midazolam and a paralytic drug.

(M. Heath, “The US must end the use of paralytic drugs when executing prisoners,” The Guardian, op-ed, January 14, 2015). See New Voices and Lethal Injection.

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