Rights I Just Made Up: The Right To Not Be Allergic To My Execution Drug

An inmate in Ohio scheduled for execution by lethal injection is protesting that, since he is allergic to anesthesia, the state can't execute him using their prescribed method.

A doctor is studying what impact, if any, the allergy could have on the execution process after lawyers for Darryl Durr uncovered evidence of Durr's allergy in his 800-page prison medical record. Durr was sentenced to die for raping and strangling a 16-year-old girl in 1988.

"One of the things the Ohio Constitution guarantees is that he has a quick and painless execution," said defense attorney Kathleen McGarry.

"If he's going to react to the anesthetic drugs in such a manner that he's going to have a violent reaction, either vomiting or seizures or whatever the spectrum is that could happen, then obviously the execution has problems," she said.

I get that, while we execute certain prisoners, we need to do it in as humane a way as is possible when murdering someone (and, while I personally support the death penalty in general, let's be clear -- when we execute someone we are committing murder). But seriously, if I was the doctor who was "studying the impact" I would give the defense attorney a prescription that reads like this:


(Link via Overlawyered)