The Last Days Of Lethal Injection

June, 2005

Witnesses saw nothing particularly disturbing during the execution of Edward Lee Harper on May 25, 1999 other than a healthy 50-year-old prisoner being killed on an operating table inside the Kentucky State Penitentiary.At 7:16 P.M. the executioner squeezed a syringe that sent two grams of sodium pentothal through tubing into Harper's hand. Next came a dose of pancuronium bromide, designed to paralyze him, followed by potassium chloride to stop his heart. About 12 minutes after the first drug fl...