AP: Executioners Sanitized Accounts Of Deaths At Terre Haute Prison

CHICAGO (AP) — An Associated Press review of court filings shows executioners who put 13 inmates to death during the Trump presidency offered sanitized, incomplete versions of the executions to judges. The written accounts submitted in litigation that aimed to halt the executions referred to gurneys to which inmates were strapped as “beds,” called final breaths “snores” and likened dying to falling asleep. Executioners’ comparatively tranquil depictions of inmates’ reactions to lethal injections of pentobarbital contrasted reports by the AP and other media witnesses of how prisoners’ stomachs shook as the drug took effect. The accounts raise questions about whether officials misled courts to ensure the executions were done before death penalty opponent Joe Biden became president.