Ohio's Capital Punishment: Why it Took 2 Hours for a Man to Die

There are several forms of approved capital punishment that states have to choose from. These capital punishments include lethal injection, electrocution, the gas chamber, hangings, and the firing squad. However, the overwhelming majority of States choose lethal injection as their primary source of capital punishment. Ohio is one of those States that use lethal injection as the sole method. However, recent events in Ohio's capital punishment method leaves some people to question not only the method, but also the people administering the lethal injection.

Normal Lethal Injecting Procedure

The normal lethal injection procedure for Ohio's capital punishment procedure usually only takes about twenty minutes. Usually the prison inmate is given a lethal injection into his or her vein that slowly kills him. Whether you agree with any form of capital punishment or not, the procedure only takes about twenty minutes and there is usually no fuss, no mess to clean up, and usually nothing to worry about.

Two-Hour Lethal Injection

In May of 2007 Christopher Newton was all set to be executed for his crime of killing a prison inmate. However, the lethal injection procedure this time took outrageously long. The reason that the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility is giving because of this long lethal injection procedure is that the administering officer could not find Christopher's vein. However, this is not the first time that the capital punishment in Ohio has been thwarted because of a difficult-to-find- vein. In 2006, Joseph Clark was executed by lethal injection and the capital punishment process took almost just as long as Newton's did. The same reason was given in Clark's execution as was given in Christopher Newton's lethal injection.

These two incidents of not being able to find a vein in the inmates arm begs the question of whether or not the facilitators of the lethal injection process in Ohio are qualified to do so. Furthermore, it seems as though this extra-long process that the inmates have been subjected to would qualify as "cruel and unusual punishment," as proclaimed by our Constitutional rights, which is being claimed by a group of Ohio inmates that is suing the state with that very claim!

The inmates do have a right to know what is going on when it comes to Ohio's capital punishment procedures. Whether or not the lethal injection process is "cruel and unusual" will be up for the courts to decide, but one thing is for sure. Ohio's capital punishment process may be and should be investigated before any more of these occurrences do happen!