Recently a press report highlighted a major problem with the cocktail of drugs, used during the lethal injection, execution method. Routine autopsies on executed inmates showed, the level of Sodium thiopental which is a ultra-short action barbiturate, an anesthetic agent capable of rendering the person unconscious in a few seconds, was not given in high enough doses to knock out an inmate and keep him unconscious. Potassium chloride, used to stop the heart and cause death, did not always stop the heart. Due to the autopsy results on 41 inmates, concerns have been raised by experts in the field, that the inmates could well be suffering cruel and unusual punishment. It has also been shown that discrepancies between states, on the amount of chemical given varies widely. An example being North Carolina, these state records included the weight of each inmate; the researchers were able to calculate the dosages in that state, which ranged from 10 to 45 milligrams per kilogram. They calculated that states such as Virginia that use 2 grams of thiopental were administering doses between 6.6 and 30 milligrams per kilogram. Excerpt from the Los Angeles Timesâ