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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