Last month it was announced that the Arkansas Department of Corrections would be moving up eight of their inmates’ execution dates. This is a result of the upcoming expiration of one of the three lethal substances that are required to make the process a success: Midazolam. In other words, as stated by the executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, Robert Dunham, “What Arkansas has essentially done is taken the concept of the use-by-date and converted it into a kill-by-date”.
While one of the original eight inmates has been granted temporary retrieve, the remaining seven will not face such fate. Despite subsequent protests, the corrections department has, up to this point, refused to change their schedule.
The executions are set for the end of this month and will be carried out within a 10-day period. While Texas has executed eight people in a month — twice in 1997 — no state in the modern era has executed so many prisoners in 10 days.
However, some argue that because the men scheduled for the execution are convicted murderers, it does not really matter. In response to this, AJ+ has raised the question of whether these acts are justice or whether they are rather a “cruel and unusual killing spree” as mentioned by Cassandra Stubbs, director of the ACLU Capital Punishment Project.
The results of continuous executions, such as those planned, have the potential to be disastrous. As previously mentioned, Midazolam is a key factor in the three-substance recipe for a successful execution. It also has been responsible for several botched executions in the past. According to Stubbs, the drug “risks that the prisoner will feel as if he is being burned alive from the inside while paralyzed”.
As a matter of fact, there have been multiple failures associated with its use. There have been at least two instances in which prisoners have, in turn, suffered for extended periods of time rather than being immediately swept into their eternal sleep. For example, Ronald Smith moved and gasped for 30 minutes and Joseph Wood gasped for air for 2 hours. What is supposed to be quick and easy has, on various occasions, backfired and been elongated.
What occurs is that when the drug is used back-to-back, especially by personnel who are unfamiliar with it and who are not aware what to do in the case of its failure, there is a risk: the risk that instances such as the aforementioned will occur.
As to exactly where the source of the department’s anticipation stems from: the governor of Arkansas, Asa Hutchinson, has stated that “it is uncertain as to whether another drug can be obtained, and the families of the victims do not need to live with continued uncertainty after decades of review”. In other words, he wants to make the best of his time while supplies last. He also believes that it is owed to the families of the prisoners’ victims. In his mind, he is doing what is right.
However, with all factors taken into consideration, is it the right thing? Or is it simply just a stride for Arkansas’ own personal agenda?
