Experimenting with lethal drugs violates US Constitution

Lethal injection was adopted by the US because it was more ‘humane’ but an EU ban on certain drugs has led to painful and prolonged deaths, writes Leonid Bershidsky.

Europe is often portrayed as a collection of weaklings who bend easily to US will. It is the European Union, however, that is making capital punishment in the US more painful than it has to be and may influence debate over the death penalty across the Atlantic.

On Tuesday, Oklahoma executed Clayton Lockett, 38, who killed 18-year-old Stephanie Nieman in 1999. Nieman had shown up with her friend at a house where Lockett, with two previous felony convictions under his belt and less than a year out of prison, was trying to force a man to pay back a debt. The friend was raped by Lockett and his two associates but escaped alive. Nieman refused to give up her car keys, and he shot her.