Prisoners killed by lethal injection may be conscious and may experience excruciating pain and burning sensations while they asphyxiate, according to a new report.
“The design of the lethal-drug scheme itself is flawed,” say Leonidas Koniaris of the University of Miami and his colleagues in the April PLoS Medicine.
The researchers point to low post-mortem blood concentrations of sedatives and several reports of prisoners who required a second round of injections.
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