Why Does America Have So Much Difficulty Executing Murderers?

In what will undoubtedly be a memorable first major tie-breaking vote as a Supreme Court Judge, Neil Gorsuch cast the deciding vote last night to allow Arkansas to begin executing a group of 8 death-row inmates. The decision came after attorneys for the State of Arkansas sought an expedited process to allow for the executions to proceed before their lethal-injection drugs expire at the end of April.

The “Kill You” drugs used by Arkansas were about to expire? Wha? Don’t they have veterinarians in Arkansas?

The drug most commonly used by veterinarians to euthanize a dog is phenobarbital, an anti-seizure medication that in a large dosage will stop the heart and brain function in about two minutes.
Done.
And it costs anywhere from $50 to $150 per injection. If the murder victim is related to a veterinarian, I bet it will be done gratis.

Arkansas used a Cocktail O’Death using three ingredients:

Midazolam, the drug used to make inmates unconscious before two more drugs paralyze and kill them, does not effectively prevent a painful death. The second drug, pancuronium bromide, paralyzes the inmate. The third, potassium chloride, brings on cardiac arrest and stops the heart.

The cost of these cocktails has risen sharply; last year the American Pharmacists Association refused to participate in executions. As there are relatively few executions in the US the cost of these chemicals has increased from $500 per vial to over $1,000. We really need to talk to the veterinarians.

There is yet another avenue to achieve low cost, painless executions. About $30 worth of street heroin will blissfully place the murderer in the arms of Morpheus, forever.