R.I.P. Andrew DeYoung

Roman Colosseum lit to protest an execution

On July 22, 2011, Georgia executed Andrew DeYoung, who was convicted of killing his parents and his 14-year-old sister in 1993.  The execution was videotaped after a judge granted the request by lawyers for another condemned inmate to document DeYoung's reaction to an untested three-drug lethal injection combination.  After Georgia's supply of illegally imported sodium thiopental was seized by the DEA, it decided to substitute pentobarbital.  There were problems reported during the previous execution of Roy Blankenship, and concerns have been raised that the new anesthetic is not effective in shielding the inmate from the excruciating pain that comes when the other two drugs are injected. 

This was the 29th execution in the United States this year, and the third in Georgia.