Dr. Jay Chapman, the Oklahoma med­ical exam­in­er who cre­at­ed the three-drug lethal injec­tion pro­to­col that was used from 1982 to 2010, recent­ly told The Guardian that he has doubts about the death penalty.“I am ambiva­lent about the death penal­ty – there have been so many inci­dents of pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al mis­con­duct, or DNA test­ing that has proved a prisoner’s inno­cence. It’s prob­lem­at­ic,” Chapman said. He said he believed lethal injec­tion would be a more humane method of exe­cu­tion, ​“At that time we put ani­mals to death more humane­ly than we did human beings – so the idea of using med­ical drugs seemed a much bet­ter alter­na­tive.” He found it odd that his name has become so close­ly asso­ci­at­ed with lethal injec­tion, say­ing, ​“This wasn’t my field, and it wasn’t my pur­pose in life – I’m a foren­sic pathol­o­gist and my main pur­pose was to set up a med­ical examiner’s sys­tem for Oklahoma, which is what I did.” Ultimately, con­cerns about wrong­ful con­vic­tions have giv­en him qualms about cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment: ​“I’ve done autop­sies for 50 years and I know what peo­ple are capa­ble of doing to oth­ers. There are some crim­i­nals who have no redeem­ing fea­tures and who will nev­er be reha­bil­i­tat­ed – in those cas­es I would sup­port the death penal­ty. But I’ve also seen the mis­con­duct that can occur, and the prob­lem is: how do you sort out one from the other?”

(E. Pilkington, “ ​‘It’s prob­lem­at­ic’: inven­tor of US lethal injec­tion reveals death penal­ty doubts,” The Guardian, April 29, 2015; Photo cred­it: Lianne Milton for The Guardian.) See New Voices and Lethal Injection.

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