The Importance of Practice

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"When it came time for them to strap me, I was never so glad to get up off my back," he says. "I can remember saying to my assistant superintendent, man, this is not what the state ought to be doing." He recalls drawing water into a syringe and instructing him to depress the plunger at a rate almost equal to that being drawn by the force of gravity.

Not long into his job as prison superintendent, Frank Thompson was asked to write the manual on lethal injection for the state of Oregon. Capital punishment had not been implemented in more than 30 years, and no one knew how to do it. Frank had to travel around the country learning how other states do it, and he asked his staff to practice. They simulated every step, including seating witnesses in the gallery, interacting with the press, and strapping each other to the gurney.

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