Expert: Dr Ian Jackson - please note UK based - 10/3/2006

Question
During trial last week in the Morales v. Woodford case in California, attorneys for Morales discovered through interviews of witnesses for the state that some of the condemned prisoners may have received 600mgs of sodium thiopental instead of the 5gs the protocol instructs should be given.  If this is true, do you believe inmates would have felt the effects of the second and third drugs, i.e., suffocation with the second and excruciating pain with the third.  (I am a journalism student at SDSU in California and am writing a story.)  

Answer
Hi there
As a UK anaesthetist this is outside my expertise. All I can say is that the dose of sodium thiopentone was 250 -500mgs - so 600 mgs would knock out even a fairly large individual for quite some time. However as an anaesthetist you would give as much as was necessary and no more.
I cannot speculate (and would not desire to) on the next part of your question.
Sorry
Dr Ian Jackson