The US State of Texas executed an inmate on death row for a 2001 rape and murder by using a euthanasia drug designed for animals.
Texas, and a handful of other states, have opted to use pentobarbital to kill the inmate as opposed to sodium thiopental which is not manufactured in the US. The drug is also not available in the US because other nations who manufacture it refuse to export it to America because the drug is used to carry out the death penalty. Both Ohio and Oklahoma has also used the drug to kill inmates on death row and South Carolina plans to use the drug on May 6 for a scheduled execution.Texas executed Cary Kerr who had long claimed his court-appointed attorney failed to adequately represent him. Defense attorneys filled an appeal with the Supreme Court claiming Kerr did not receive proper defense, but the appeal was not heard.Kerr’s final words were, “I am an innocent man. Never trust a court-appointed attorney. I am ready, warden… Here we go. Lord Jesus, Jesus.”Liliana Segura, an associate editor of The Nation Magazine and a member of the board of the Campaign to end the Death Penalty has argued that the use of animal euthanasia drugs on people amounts to human experimentation and torture. “The Constitution protects people from cruel and unusual punishment,” she noted. The drugs, administered in a pattern, can often not work as anticipated. The drug used to eliminate pain could fail, making lethal injection very painful. The drug which paralyzes can also fail, causing the body of the individual to convulse and shake. The US government often looks the other way, arguing it is not going to regulate drugs used for execution. Never the less there is an impact on the person and it can be summed up as inhumane and both cruel and unusual.Switching the drugs without testing the system amounts to human experimentation, Segura said. Some states have opted to use one drug without knowing what affect it might have; others have created new cocktails without anticipating how the human body might respond.