“It feels like acid,” and “My body is on fire.”

Compare:

“So suppose that we said, we’re going to burn you at the stake, but before we do, we’re going to use an anesthetic of completely unknown properties and unknown effects. Maybe you won’t feel it, maybe you will. We just can’t tell,” said Justice Elena Kagan. “And you think that that would be OK?”

with

“Let’s be honest about what’s going on here,” said Justice Samuel Alito, adding opponents were conducting “a guerrilla war against the death penalty” by pressuring pharmaceutical manufacturers to deny access to more effective chemicals, then suing to block alternatives that raised the risk of pain.

The legal issue:

Whether a federal district judge who upheld the use of midazolam clearly was wrong. The inmates argued the judge erroneously relied on unsupported expert testimony, and concluded, without scientific evidence, that midazolam induces “a phenomenon that is not anesthesia” but was like a coma and made the subject unable to feel pain."

Haven't we seen enough of "the needle and the damage done?"