The 8th amendment of our Constitution clearly states “Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishment inflicted” upon convicted criminals. However, lethal injection remains a longstanding practice in the United States and is subject to constant debate over its ethics. Throughout American history various states have grappled with the interpretation of the death penalty and ongoing debates about its moral implications. December 7th, 1982 a convicted felon, Charles Brooks was the first person executed in the United States by lethal injection. It wasn’t until 2006 that the Supreme Court ruled during Hill v. McDonough said that death row inmates could challenge the constitutionality of lethal injection procedures in their states by filing federal civil rights lawsuits. But what exactly made way for questioning this method of punishment? In part, this was inspired by emerging evidence that showed the 3 part concoction results in an agonizing death comparable to drowning or suffocation. These findings directly violate the protections outlined in the 8th amendment.
How does the practice of the death penalty in this country then interact with pervasive racism in our criminal system? Being wrongly convicted is one thing, but being sentenced to an agonizing death due to that wrongful conviction is something entirely different, which brings me to the case of Marcellus Williams. “Mr. William’s story echoes that of too many others caught in our country’s broken criminal legal system,” The Innocence Project said in a statement. They continued “A Black man convicted of killing a white woman, Mr. Williams maintained his innocence until the very end.” Despite the evidence against Williams being inconclusive and public protest against the execution of Williams, on September 24th, 2024 he was administered lethal injection. Let’s take a procedural glimpse into what William’s final moments looked like as a plausibly innocent victim of lethal injection.
To begin the lethal injection process, the inmate is first strip-searched and restrained. The IV team then locates two veins and places two catheters in the inmate’s body. Phase 1: The first drug delivered contains midazolam intended to render the inmate unconscious. 500 mg floods the bloodstream along with 60 mL of saline solution. Keep in mind, the (NIH) National Institutes of Health advise “no more than 5 mg of midazolam for a healthy adult under 60 years old to reduce anxiety and allow them to fall asleep.” Considering the amount of midazolam administered during lethal injection, anesthesiologist and Emory professor Dr. Joel Zivot, reports 82% of inmates show signs of pulmonary edema. This reveals that if the inmate is not fully unconscious the fluid entering their lungs would mimic a drowning sensation. Physical signs of distress are masked by the Phase 2: vecuronium bromide causing paralysis, injected at 100mg. According to the NIH, vecuronium bromide is typically used at a fraction of the amount for anesthesia to help relax the patient and help keep the breathing tube placed. An initial dose of .08 to .1 mg/kg is enough to paralyze a human body for roughly 25-30 minutes. The 100 mg dose of vecuronium bromide alone during lethal injection is enough to cause death by asphyxiation by paralyzing the diaphragm. Finally, Phase 3: Termination. The inmate is administered 240 mEq of potassium chloride alongside 60 mL of saline solution. NIH states “A clinical IV dose of potassium chloride ranges from 10 mEq per hour to 40 mEq per liter of water.” This drug has been found to sustain a burning sensation when administered which is now amplified by the dosage. The inmate is fully aware of this pain in the event they are not fully unconscious. As soon as enough potassium reaches the inmates heart, they enter into cardiac arrest. This entire process occurs over the course of five minutes.
Marcellus Williams’ final words: “All praise be to Allah in every situation.”
So again I ask: What then of justice in a country whose issues are so multifaceted? How can we have a justified death penalty in a justice system informed by racism? What becomes of justice in a country whose systems do not allocate justice equally across class and race?
Resources:
Missouri executes Marcellus Williams after two decades on death row