Abstract
Since the late 1980s lethal injection has been the preferred method of executing prisoners on death row in the USA. This has largely been because it is seen by many as the most humane method of lawful killing. The injection consists of a lethal cocktail of three drugs which are in turn administered to the prisoner. The first drug is an anaesthetic which is used to eliminate the pain caused by the other two, hence allowing a pain-free and humane death. Recent research however has established that it is highly probable that many prisoners are not in fact anaesthetised when the pain inducing drugs are injected into their systems. Instead those on death row are at a high risk of suffering cruel or unusual punishment in breach of the Eighth Amendment of the US Constitution. The courts in the USA have not, in the main, supported such a theory, although Hill v McDonough, Interim Secretary, Florida Department of Correction et al. now seems to have opened the door for prisoners to test the constitutionality of the lethal injection in local Federal Courts.
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