considered to have been “botched”, with lethal injection having the highest rate at 7.1 percent. 40 While some, such as Ernest van den Haag, argue that the brutal nature of some executions is justified given the crimes these people have committed, Herb Haines does not believe this is the view held by most Americans. 41 Instead, Haines believes that the American public do not wish to see a particularly cruel death penalty. 42 This would appear to be true as all states that use the death penalty have now moved to the lethal injection as their preferred method. 43 However, this has not necessarily proven to be more humane and has led to several notable cases which have impacted on the support for the death penalty. Executions such as that of Angel Diaz in Florida led to a temporary moratorium after the drugs used were injected into the skin rather than a vein. 44 Issues with the use of lethal injection are further complicated by the unwillingness of medical professionals to take part in the procedure with many professional medical associations threatening to take actions against its members if they take part in an execution. 45 In addition to this, some states are now facing a shortage of 40 Debbie Siegelbaum, ‘ America’s “Inexorably” Botched Executions ’, by BBC Magazine, BBC News , 1 August 2014 <http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-28555978> [accessed 24 April 2016]. 41 Ernest van den Haag, ‘ The Ultimate Punishment: A Defence’ , Harvard Law Review , 99 (1986), 1667 42 Herb Haines, ‘Flawed Executions, the Anti-Death Penalty Movement, and the Politics of Capital Punishment’, Social Problems , 39 (1992), p.126. 43 David Von Drehle, ‘ The Death of the Death Penalty’ . 44 Frank Romanelli, Tyler Whisman and Joseph L Fink, ‘ Issues Surrounding Lethal Injection as a Means of Capital Punishment’ , Pharmacotherapy , 28 (2008), p. 1432. 45 Romanelli, Whisman and Fink, ‘Issues Surrounding Lethal Injection’ , p. 1433.
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