Blankenship was put to death Thursday night for the murder of 78-year-old Sarah Mims Bowen in Savannah 33 years ago.
The media described a gruesome scene: “According to witnesses, Blankenship grimaced, jerked, lunged from side-to-side, gasped and appeared to yell out during the three minutes immediately after the first drug was administered. Witnesses said his eyes remained open until the end, as had been the case with the two previous executions.”
Georgia used a new sedative, pentobarbital, a drug that is untested on humans. Kammer wrote to Georgia Supreme Court Chief Justice Carol Hunstein that “DOC has had three problematic executions in a row, indicating serious and systemic problems in how DOC administers judicial lethal injections and that DOC cannot assure a humane, constitutional execution process.”
Blankenship previously challenged the drug regimen to try to stop his execution, including the use of expired drugs.
For a related prior column, click here.
Source: AJC
Jonathan Turley