Thursday, October 3, 2013

APNewsBreak: Texas reveals execution drug's origin

Week #5
Article #1
http://www.statesman.com/ap/ap/crime/lawsuit-challenging-texas-execution-drugs/nbC69/
1.     Category of problem: Politics
2.     Level of problem: National
3.     This article concerns: Drugs used in execution for Texas’ inmates as well as other states such as South Dakota and Georgia.
4.     Importance/effect on families/individuals: This article concerns individuals in the state of Texas, especially inmates that are waiting in death row to be penalized with new drugs.
My input:  In this article, problems with drugs used for executions are discussed. In Texas’ prisons there has been a shortage for the drug “pentobarbital”, this shortage is the cause of pharmacies not wanting to supply prisons with it since it is the drug that is used for executions. Therefore many prisons are turning to compounding pharmacies to obtain their supply that lasts for months to perform executions. But because prisons are using this new drug, three inmates have filed a lawsuit stating that it is against their rights to be given this drug since it violates the U.S Constitution’s protection against cruel and unusual punishment. Even though, officials do not agree with the lawsuit, it has been hard to obtain the previous drug therefore they are continuing to use pentobarbital and other states will start using the same drug. In my opinion the inmates might be right in the sense that this new drug has not been tested and it could be a potential threat, but if prisons have difficulty in obtaining the previous used drug, then they will continue to use it unless officials agree that it is a violation to the inmates’ rights. A better solution could be to test the drug and see the effects, and then proceed if the effects are not bad for inmates to be executed with.



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