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America’s botched lethal injections

“The recent spate of botched lethal injection executions have shown that, whatever the drug, whatever the protocol, condemned prisoners often spend their final moments in agonising pain and distress,” Maya Foa, director of advocacy group Reprieve US, said in a statement after the execution.

“Establishing IV access is difficult, even for trained medical professionals,” she added. “Prison officials often struggle to find a vein, subjecting the prisoner to a lengthy ordeal of stabs and cuts. With each gruesome scene in the death chamber, we are witnessing the consequences of persisting with a broken method of execution in real time.”

Read the full story at the Independent.