Cruel and Unusual On Trial
In a four-day trial in California that's one of several court proceedings around the nation in which lethal injection is facing Constitutional challenges as a violation of the ban on cruel and unusual punishment, an anesthesiologist testified Wednesday that executed inmates "may have been conscious when they were administered a drug that induces suffocation and an 'excruciating'' experience comparable to drowning or strangulation," report HENRY WEINSTEIN and MAURA DOLAN for the Los Angeles Times.