MOSCOW (Sputnik), Daria Chernyshova — The use of lethal injections as means of carrying out death penalty executions is failing in the US as pharmaceutical companies do not want to be associated with the life-taking practice and Europe does not allow the export of lethal drugs for executions, the executive director of Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC) told Sputnik Tuesday.
“I think that what we are really seeing is that states are trying to come to grips with the fact that lethal injection is failing as a method of execution,” Robert Dunham from the Washington-based advocacy group told Sputnik.
Dunham explained that American pharmaceutical companies that produce life sustaining drugs did not want to be associated with life-taking enterprises such as executions.
The problems surrounding the lethal injection method of carrying out the death penalty, such as botching the dose, have brought the issue of capital punishment to a critical point in the United States, he said.
"The problems with lethal injection and the revulsion that the public has shown for more overtly violent and gruesome methods of executions like hanging and firing squad, may push this to the next level," Dunham told Sputnik.
He listed Delaware, Montana and Nebraska as states that could abolish the death penalty in the near future.
At the same time, the EU regards the death penalty as a human rights violation.
Dunham said the EU would not permit European pharmaceutical manufacturers to export life- taking drugs for use in executions in any country.
“Because of these two things, the supply of lethal injection drugs has been scarce,” Dunham told Sputnik.
Lethal injections have come under increased scrutiny following botched injection cases across the United States. In Arizona, a condemned man took almost two hours to die after being given the lethal injection.
