Tag Archives: lethal injection expert witness

Experts Battle in Tennessee Lethal Injection Case

Lawyers representing 33 death row inmates in Tennessee are turning to expert witnesses to argue that lethal injection is an unconstitutional method of execution due to the risk of severe pain and lingering death created by the state’s drug cocktail.  Attorneys for the state called counter experts to refute the plaintiff’s claim, causing the high-profile trial over the use of lethal injection in Tennessee to turn into a battle of the experts whose testimony will prove critical to the outcome of the case.

Tennessee Death Row Inmates Use Experts to Challenge Lethal Injection

There have been several challenges to the lethal injection system over the past few years in which inmates allege the process is unconstitutionally cruel because of the pain suffered during execution.  While the Tennessee inmates challenging the state’s execution process similarly cite the high risk of suffering as a reason to ban lethal injection, they are also claiming that the drug cocktail creates a risk of lingering death.  According to the lawsuit, Tennessee’s lethal injection drug mixture risks an overdose of sedatives which can put the inmates into a death-like coma for hours before killing them.

According to two expert witnesses testifying on behalf of the plaintiffs, the negative consequences of the coma-like lingering death that inmates suffer can become severe if the condemned is either resuscitated or spontaneously re-awakes.  During the trial, a resuscitation expert witness testified to the court that it is possible to revive an inmate who has been administered the lethal drug cocktail, sometimes ½ hour or more after it had taken effect.  Another expert witness for the plaintiffs who specializes in anesthesiology testified that it is possible that the inmate spontaneously recover despite being given a lethal dose of the drug cocktail Tennessee uses.

While a recent Supreme Court decision ruled that a lethal injection cocktail does not need to avoid causing inmates pain, the plaintiffs’ efforts to use expert witnesses that caution about the possibility of post-injection revival is a unique challenge to Tennessee’s execution process.  Attorneys for the state reached to expert witnesses to refute that position, setting up dueling expert opinions, particularly on the idea of spontaneous recovery.

Tennessee Attorneys Call Expert Witness to Defend Lethal Injection Process

In response to experts for death row inmates warning of the risk of revival post-lethal injection, attorneys for Tennessee called an expert witness to testify about the relatively pain-free and final death provided by the state’s lethal injection drugs.  According to Dr. Feng Li, a medical examiner called as an expert witness, the drug cocktail used by Tennessee contains a sufficiently high dose of the sedative pentobarbital to render the inmate unconscious within seconds.  Dr. Li went on to testify that once the inmate was unconscious he or she would not feel any pain and not revive later because the dosage of the drug would be sufficient to cause death within minutes of its administration.

Dr. Li’s expert testimony directly contradicted the opinions of the plaintiff’s experts, leaving the Tennessee Court with the task of weighing evidence provided by both sets of experts in order to determine whether the risks alleged by the plaintiffs are credible enough to prevent the state from carrying out further executions under its current process.  Executions in Tennessee have been on hold for more than five years as the state’s courts and legislature have debated solutions to the rising unavailability of traditional lethal injection drugs.

Tennessee legislators have debated changing the three drug cocktail to a single drug, and reinstating the electric chair as a back-up method of execution, but so far no final decision has been made.  Tennessee joins a number of states that have been confronted with procedural challenges to lethal injection as pharmaceutical companies withhold the necessary drugs.  Utah and Oklahoma have responded by reinstating alternative methods of execution – firing squad and gas chamber, respectively – and should the Tennessee Court rule in favor of the plaintiffs in this case lawmakers would be forced to consider similar measures or abandon the death penalty altogether.

Inmate’s Family Sues Ohio Expert Witness over Botched Execution

Family members of an Ohio inmate executed by the state have sued a lethal injection expert witness for failing to recognize that the controversial two-drug technique would cause suffering.  Claiming that the expert helped create an inmate execution policy that he knew would be painful, the plaintiffs are seeking financial compensation for its use in a death sentence carried out in January of this year.

Ohio Conducts Review after Lengthy Execution

In January, Ohio inmate Dennis McGuire was executed for the 1989 rape and stabbing death of Joy Stewart, a 22-year old pregnant woman.  McGuire’s execution, the first to be conducted by an untried two-drug combination, made headlines after he took nearly ½ an hour to die.  According to witnesses, the convicted killer gasped for air and writhed in pain for 15 minutes, leading attorneys representing McGuire and his family to call the new method of execution a “failed experiment” and request official review of the process.

In a report relying on the opinion of an anesthesiologist who reviewed the witness accounts and McGuire’s medical records, Ohio officials declared that the condemned inmate did not suffer during his execution.  Finding that the execution was humane despite the apparent hang-ups, the report read, “The two drugs used in the McGuire execution had their intended effect and that McGuire did not experience any pain or distress.  The bodily movements that were observed were consistent with the effects of the drugs, his obesity and other body characteristics, and involuntary muscle contractions associated with the ending of respiratory function. There is no evidence that McGuire experienced any pain, distress or anxiety.”

Despite the findings, the Ohio Department of Corrections announced that it would increase the dosages of both drugs in its two-drug system, and state officials have postponed a second planned execution indefinitely.  Calling the state’s actions a tacit admission that the execution did not transpire as planned, attorneys for McGuire’s family filed a lawsuit against the state and the expert witness who helped develop the new two-drug execution procedure.

Inmate’s Family Files Lawsuit against Death Penalty Expert Witness

In a recently filed lawsuit, family members of Dennis McGuire claimed that a former expert witness who helped Ohio construct its two-drug cocktail knew, or should have known, the procedure would cause unreasonable pain and suffering when used during executions.  Dr. Mark Dershwitz, who resigned as a death penalty expert witness citing concerns about his professional reputation, worked closely with Ohio officials to help create the state’s new lethal injection process.  Dr. Dershwitz is an anesthesiologist and pharmacologist working for the University of Massachusetts who has been a public proponent of the two-drug method as a new lethal injection policy, and he contracted as an expert witness with Ohio prior to McGuire’s death in developing the procedure for use in state executions.

The lawsuit against Dr. Dershwitz and the drugs’ distributors claims that the expert “knew or should have known that when used in executions, Hydromorphone and Midazolam would cause unnecessary and extreme pain and suffering during the execution process.”  Pointing to the McGuire ordeal, plaintiffs claim that he suffered needlessly because of the experimental procedure, and Dr. Dershwitz shares responsibility for encouraging the state to switch to the two-drug method.  Although Dershwitz did not testify at a trial, his work was instrumental in the adoption and use of a two-drug cocktail that, according to lawsuit, he knew would cause pain and suffering in violation of the Constitutional protection against cruel and unusual punishment.

Dr. Dershwitz, who resigned in April after continuing to consult with Ohio prison officials following McGuire’s execution, has not responded to the federal lawsuit.