In 2020, death row inmate Wesley Ira Purkey was executed by lethal injection for his crimes. But the manner in which it took place has come under scrutiny due to revelations that lethal injection procedures may cause ‘excruciating’ pain, and it seems to have been the case for Purkey. Despite his atrocities, discussions on humane executions have been raised, shedding light on the complexities of administering the death penalty.
Getting to Death Row
Wesley Purkey’s journey to death row began in 2004 after being convicted of kidnapping, raping, and murdering a 16-year-old girl in 1998. The brutal details of the crime, including dismemberment, shocked the nation. By all accounts, Purkey had already earned his jail sentence. But he then killed an 80-year-old woman before being arrested. He was caught after his neighbors saw him try to burn her body.1
Suffering from dementia at 68 during his execution, Purkey made a peculiar last meal request — pecan pie. What made it odd was that he asked for it to be saved for later, indicating the man may have had a potential lack of awareness about his impending fate. This request set the conversation in motion as experts started to question the impact of the mental state of death row inmates when being administered lethal injection.
Lethal Injection
Dr. Gail Van Norman, a medical expert, has asserted that Purkey likely experienced an ‘excruciating’ death rather than the intended painless demise. Autopsies revealed severe pulmonary edema, a condition causing sensations akin to drowning and suffocation. Van Norman highlighted the ethical concerns, stating that the use of pentobarbital, the lethal injection drug, virtually guarantees excruciating suffering for death row prisoners.
The controversy surrounding lethal injections has been around long before Purkey. Anesthesiologist Dr. Joel Zivot has investigated autopsy reports from Georgia death row inmates and discovered a disturbing trend of pulmonary edema in 84% of cases. This evidence is now a focal point in constitutional challenges to the death penalty in the United States.2
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The Anatomy of Death Row Inmate Pulmonary Edema:
Pulmonary edema, as revealed in autopsies, occurs when the delicate lung architecture is damaged by high doses of drugs, particularly midazolam and pentobarbital. The concentration of drugs damages the barrier between the lung’s blood vessels and air sacs, causing fluid to accumulate, breathing to be impaired, and a feeling of drowning. The severity of this condition challenges the notion of a humane execution. Regardless of whether or not you believe death row inmates deserve a painless death, constitutionally, this is a problem.
The first drug in a lethal injection is meant to anesthetize the inmates, but the commonly used midazolam fails to reliably induce an anesthetic state. Experts argue that if the initial drug doesn’t effectively anesthetize the inmate, they probably feel both the suffocation due to pulmonary edema as well as the searing pain of the subsequent heart-stopping drug, potassium chloride. Concerns about proper anesthesia have persisted for years, contributing to a growing skepticism surrounding lethal injections.
Legality and Alternatives
The evidence of pulmonary edema has become a powerful tool in constitutional challenges to the death penalty. Courts must grapple with lethal injections and the extent of pain experienced by death row inmates. The subjective nature of defining “severe pain and needless suffering” under the Eighth Amendment has led to varying interpretations. Despite this, public support for the death penalty remains high, indicating a broader societal dilemma: the death penalty remains, but how can its be done better?
Some lawyers and medical experts have proposed bringing back the firing squad as a more humane option, eliminating the risk of pulmonary edema. While this may be an extreme measure, it does highlight the challenges states face in administering a humane and constitutional form of capital punishment.
The death of Wesley Purkey has ignited the broader conversation about the ethics of lethal injections in the United States. With pulmonary edema rampant in autopsy reports, serious concerns about the humane nature of the death penalty have come forward. As the legality of the practice and alternative methods are considered, the nation must juggle the moral and constitutional implications of ending a human life in the name of justice.