NC Execution Stayed Due to Injection Drug
A North Carolina court has stayed the Friday execution of Henry Lee Hunt so that his claim that the state plans to use an illegal drug, potassium chloride, in killing him can be reviewed by the courts. Potassium chlorid stops the heart from beating. The North Carolina statute specifies the use of two drugs for executions, a barbituate and a drug that causes paralysis. The ruling could impact all the prisoners on death row.
Potassium chloride is a very caustic and burning drug if given while the person is still awake. Here is more on the lethal cocktail of execution drugs.
Hunt claims he is innocent. In 1989, a co-defendant signed an affidavit admitting to the killing and stating that Hunt was not involved in the murder. The Judge refused to hear that claim. But now that a stay has been granted, his lawyers will appeal the ruling.
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