Death row is not a science lab, and we should not experiment on inmates 

Since the late 19th century, the United States has been on a quest to find a method of execution that will allow it to reconcile the use of the death penalty with the Constitution’s prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment. This has turned out not to be an easy thing to do. 

States have used different methods to accomplish this difficult task at different times. Hanging, the electric chair, the firing squad, the gas chamber, lethal injection and nitrogen hypoxia have, at one time or another, found their way onto the menu of execution methods used in this country. Each one of them remains on the books in one death penalty state or another. 

Each new method of execution has brought with it a period of experimentation in which people condemned to death have been used as human guinea pigs. Now, the state of Utah, long known for its embrace of the firing squad, is planning to use a previously untried drug combination in a lethal injection of Taberon Honie on Aug. 8, the state’s first death row inmate to face an execution warrant in more than a decade. 

Honie was convicted and sentenced to death for the 1998 sexual assault and murder of Claudia Benn, the mother of his then-girlfriend. His case is just the latest symptom of what I call “the lethal injection quandary.” Once touted as the most humane and reliable method of execution, lethal injection has turned out to be neither. 

Lethal injection’s earliest proponents argued that it would make execution an undramatic and private event. Rather than creating a spectacle, it would produce a death like falling asleep. The condemned person’s heart would be stopped, and they would die quickly.  

The procedure was said to be simple and would be easily administered. And it would be cheap. All that would be required would be an IV, tubing to carry the lethal drugs, and the drugs themselves. 

But history has belied these hopes. Of all of the methods used in executions over the last century and more, lethal injection has proven to be the least reliable and most frequently botched. 

And that situation has not been improving over time. Indeed, in 2022, there were so many problems with lethal injection executions that the Death Penalty Information Center dubbed it “the year of the botched execution.” 

Part of the problem is that over the last 15 years, the lethal injection paradigm has broken down. From the time of its first use in 1982 through 2009, lethal injection signified a single thing: a standard three-drug protocol that was used everywhere in lethal injection executions. 

But, since 2009, that can no longer be said. 

Between then and now, states have used at least 10 distinct protocols in their executions. Some have involved barbiturate combinations using drugs like sodium thiopental, pancuronium bromide and potassium chloride, or alternatively pentobarbital, rocuronium bromide and potassium chloride. 

Others involve barbiturate overdoses, using massive doses of either sodium thiopental or pentobarbital alone. Still others have involved a distinctive sedative combination with other drugs like midazolam or etomidate. 

Some protocols have been used multiple times, while others were used once. Even so, the traditional 3-drug protocol was all but forgotten. 

As it contemplates resuming executions, the state of Utah now plans to add to the variety of lethal injection protocols by using a novel drug combination: ketamine, fentanyl and potassium chloride. According to the Utah Department of Corrections, “Ketamine serves as an anesthetic, Fentanyl relieves pain, and Potassium Chloride stops the heart.” 

Ketamine is a dissociative anesthetic that can lead to hallucinations, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. The drug is “notorious for creating a psychotic state,” which can result in paranoia, anxiety, strong hallucinations and out-of-body experiences. 

If it is administered intravenously, someone being executed could experience “unnecessary mental anguish” and be rendered “incompetent.” It can cause suffocation, nausea and vomiting.  

And the more ketamine that’s administered, the worse the effects become. Higher doses don’t necessarily correlate to lesser pain. 

Utah initially was not deterred by the prospect of becoming the first state in the country to use ketamine in an execution by lethal injection. No one knew what to expect since Utah, following the example of other death penalty states, went to great lengths to shroud its plan in secrecy.  

But, we know Honie would be a guinea pig in Utah’s effort. 

As reported in the Utah News Dispatch, Honie sued to avoid that fate, claiming the novel approach could lead to unnecessary pain and suffering while triggering hallucinations, paranoia, and “mental anguish.”  

In addition, his suit challenged the use of the opioid fentanyl, which has only been used in one U.S. execution, a 2018 lethal injection in Nevada, where it was one of four drugs. Even in high doses, Honie alleges, fentanyl can’t “reliably induce unconsciousness.” 

In combination, ketamine could cause “psychological torture,” fentanyl could lead to painful suffocation, and neither drug will mask the pain brought on by potassium chloride, the drug used to stop the heart. 

That’s a grim prospect for someone facing an execution. 

Taken together, Honie claimed that Utah’s plan for his execution violates the 8th Amendment prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment.  

In a court hearing on Wednesday to begin consideration of Honie’s contention, Utah officials told the judge that they “stand by the three-drug combination as an effective and humane method.” At the same time, they indicated that they were exploring whether it would be possible to change course.  

The state, as the Salt Lake Tribune put it, is “scrambling” to get a different drug for the lethal injection.  It announced that it is “looking into the feasibility” of obtaining pentobarbital to use in Honie’s execution. Officials offered little explanation for their willingness to consider abruptly changing course and no certainty about whether they would do so. 

On Saturday, Utah announced that it had found a supply of pentobarbital, which it hoped would arrive in time for Honie’s execution.

Whether or not Utah goes through with its new plan or ends up using ketamine and the two other drugs, Honie’s case is a reminder that in the grim business of capital punishment, states like Utah experiment, innovate and improvise. They do so even if it means using death row inmates as guinea pigs as we try to keep the machinery of death running. 

That is a price that we shouldn’t ask anyone to pay. 

Austin Sarat is the William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Jurisprudence and Political Science at Amherst College. His views do not necessarily reflect those of Amherst College.