Visit Public News Service’s “Clock Ticks on Kentucky Execution Protocol” to hear the entire radio broadcast. Here’s a transcript of the part in which Rev. Pat Delahanty, KCADP’s chair, shares his thoughts on Kentucky’s lethal injection protocol.
Opponents, like the Rev. Pat Delahanty, chair of the Kentucky Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, say the protocol is a grim read.
“If we read these without knowing this was the state of Kentucky and this was some kind of a state sanctioned activity, we’d want to go arrest the person who wrote this stuff.”
Delahanty says the protocol violates some basic rights, such as barring clergy from the execution chamber. He says some religions demand that one-on-one contact in a person’s final moments.
“The most common that I’m aware of because of my own background is the Catholic Church’s anointing of the sick and dying. There’s not a way to do that if you don’t touch the person.”
Delahanty says blocking the view of the media and witnesses when IV’s are administered is, in effect, concealing whether the injection is working properly, or if something is going wrong.
“If you’re embarrassed to have a picture of it, why do you do it?”
Why abolish the death penalty in Kentucky?
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