R.I.P. Thomas Kemp

Roman Colosseum lit to protest an execution

On April 25, 2012, Arizona executed Thomas Kemp for the kidnapping and murder of Hector Soto Juarez in 1992.

Several states are changing their lethal injection protocol from a 3-drug "cocktail" to use of one drug -- pentobarbital -- due to the shortage of one of the three drugs as well as concerns that the combination, which includes a paralytic, may mask excruciating pain.  Arizona has gone to the one-drug procedure without adequate testing or analysis, and there are serious issues surrounding this method, which will be revisited after Kemp's execution, in which he began to "shake violently" when injected with pentobarbital.

This is the 16th execution in the United States this year, and the third in Arizona.