Anesthesia allergy could complicate Ohio execution

[The Straight Story]

Anesthesia allergy could complicate Ohio execution
Wednesday, April 14, 2010 1:27 PM


COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - A condemned Ohio inmate who says he's allergic to anesthesia is undertaking what appears to be a unique legal maneuver, arguing that no one knows how his body will react if state officials are allowed next week to inject him with the one lethal drug they now use.

A doctor is studying what impact, if any, the allergy could have on the execution process after lawyers for Darryl Durr uncovered evidence of Durr's allergy in his 800-page prison medical record. Durr was sentenced to die for raping and strangling a 16-year-old girl in 1988.

"One of the things the Ohio Constitution guarantees is that he has a quick and painless execution," said defense attorney Kathleen McGarry.

"If he's going to react to the anesthetic drugs in such a manner that he's going to have a violent reaction, either vomiting or seizures or whatever the spectrum is that could happen, then obviously the execution has problems," she said.

McGarry said she doesn't know what drugs Durr is allergic to, or whether they include thiopental sodium, the anesthetic that Ohio uses to put inmates to death. The state last year became the first to switch to a single intravenous dose of anesthetic for executions instead of three drugs, a move followed by Washington state in March.

http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2010/04/14/allergy-execution.html?type=rss&cat=&sid=101

[sui generis]

1. fentanyl cocktail, with a cherry on top. He'll be gone before anaphylaxis even starts.

Not that I'm in favor of capital punishment by any means. Just being practical.

I AM in favor of dropping the irretrievably and irrefutably guilty down a clean hole with a comfortable bed and loo in solitary for their remaining days, no books, TV, family visits or other human contact apart from living standards audits. Give 'em a pill to take or a button to push whenever they're ready, and leave that choice in their hands, not the state. If you want them to contemplate their mistakes - that gives them plenty of opportunity, time and focus. Also think that being in solitary for your remaining days would be a bigger deterrent to committing capital murder than death row for 20 years.