Oklahoma | Physician: Governor should put an end to 'shameful' executions once and for all

When most people think of lethal injection, they think of a painless, clean medical procedure — but nothing could be further from the truth. Lethal injection has repeatedly revealed itself to be a grotesque human experiment, with correctional officials pretending to be doctors, using made-up doses of drugs never meant to kill. As a physician who has practiced in Oklahoma for more than two decades, I was appalled to read about yet another botched lethal injection execution in our state. We must end this pseudo-medical practice once and for all.  

Oklahoma was the first state to invent and use lethal injection in 1977. The coroner who helped develop the protocol famously admitted that he was “was an expert in dead bodies but not an expert in getting them that way.” The legislator who first proposed this method claimed without medical evidence that it involved “no pain, no spasms, no smells or sounds”. 

We now know how untrue these claims are. Last month, John Grant convulsed so much that his entire upper back repeatedly lifted off the gurney. The execution chamber reeked of the vomit that covered his face and neck while he was still breathing.  

Many have compared this execution to that of Clayton Lockett’s in 2014 — which the prison warden at the time called a “bloody mess.” The executioner punctured an artery in Mr. Locket’s groin, spraying blood across the room and causing his skin to swell to a size “larger than a golf ball.”  After some back and forth with the governor about how to halt the execution, proceedings were called off — but too late: Mr. Lockett died of a heart attack behind the curtain. 

The medical community have always been unwilling participants in executions. The drugs used in executions are the same medicines used in life-saving medical procedures. They were never made or developed to end lives in executions and unsurprisingly, the manufacturers of these medicines have blocked the sale of their drugs for this purpose.  

Similarly, physicians refuse to be involved in lethal injection because to do so would violate the Hippocratic Oath. The essence of the Oath is “first, do no harm to any person.” It is the bedrock of the doctor-patient relationship and built on the sacred trust that a physician’s highest aim is the health of their patient.  

When lethal injection was invented, the president of the Oklahoma Medical Association (OMA) refused to be entrenched in the venture because licensed physicians could not participate in executions. Physicians are trained to heal, not kill, and there is really no way to carry out a “peaceful” execution of an otherwise healthy person. 

Because executions are carried out by untrained (medical) personnel, there are often issues even such as the insertion of the IV. In 2017, executioners in Ohio “poked and prodded” Alva Campbell for nearly two hours trying to find a useable vein. A year later, Alabama officials tried to insert needles into Doyle Lee Hamm for over two and a half hours. After puncturing Mr. Hamm’s bladder, the execution team gave up and removed him from the gurney, after which he collapsed.  

Issues also frequently arise in dosage and drug combination. Unable to purchase pentobarbital, Arkansas officials announced in 2013 that they would use replace that drug with phenobarbital — an untested seizure-medication. Experts warned that the drug would not cause death in combination with the other two included in Arkansas’ execution protocol — potentially leaving prisoners in a vegetative state.  

Regardless of the drug used, lethal injection has the highest rate of botched executions. A review of more than 200 autopsy reports of prisoners executed by lethal injection found that 84% showed signs of pulmonary edema, a condition where the lungs are filled with a mixture of blood, plasma, and other fluids and can cause a feeling of drowning or suffocation. Importantly, these results were similar across execution cocktails.  

Oklahoma and other states have cycled through multiple variations of lethal injection drugs and protocols over the years. However, the problem lies not with the specific substances used to execute prisoners. Lethal injection as a method is simply not viable. State officials actually came to this same conclusion several years ago, rejecting lethal injection in 2018 after a bipartisan Oklahoma commission concluded in 2017 that without reform, “the efficacy, transparency, and humaneness of Oklahoma’s execution procedures will likely remain in question.” The director of Oklahoma’s Department of Corrections at the time even called lethal injection “inhumane.”

I, like many Oklahomans, have changed my views about capital punishment. As an Oklahoma physician who has practiced in this state for decades, I am now convinced that lethal injection is cruel and inherently broken. I hope that our governor will put an end to these shameful botched executions by abandoning lethal injection once and for all.  

Source: oklahoman.com, Jeffrey D. Hodgden, November 16, 2021. Jeffrey D. Hodgden is a family practice physician in Oklahoma City.

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"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." -- Oscar Wilde