Opinion ID: 3065871
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: arizona’s lethal injection protocol during

Text: DICKENS Since the end of a six-year hiatus in implementation of the death penalty from 2000 to 2006, Arizona has conducted executions by lethal injection. Prior to the 2012 changes in its lethal injection protocol, Arizona used a three-drug lethal injection cocktail that consisted of three chemicals—sodium thiopental, pancuronium bromide, and potassium chloride— administered sequentially. Sodium thiopental is a fast-acting barbiturate that anesthetizes the inmate and permits the other chemicals to be administered without causing pain. Pancuronium bromide is a paralytic neuromuscular blocking agent that causes complete paralyzation and suffocation. Potassium chloride induces cardiac arrest. In Dickens, we constrained our holding to the constitutionality of Arizona’s November 1, 2007, protocol, as amended by the Joint Report (the “2007 Protocol”), and did “not conside[r]—and express- [ed] no opinion on—any amendments to the [2007] Protocol.” 631 F.3d at 1142. 2508 TOWERY v. BREWER