used for weight control and for boosting sports performance and energy, is also linked to a risk for heart attack and stroke. - RESPONCE

Ahhh this article was scary-- it was really more on this new drug "ephedra" that is used in diet medicine, but I wanted to include it in my blog because it shows yet ANOTHER factor that comes into play when dealing with capital punishment: temporary insanity due to drug or other substance over dose. I am basically collecting as much information on the different reasons to relieve someone of capital punishment as possible, and this adds to the list. On a slightly different note, perhaps ephedra should be outlawed? It seems to me that that is common sense here; anything that can cause that much damage should not be allowed on market. I was wondering, do the same laws apply to people who are Under the Influence? Aka, can being drunk be classified as temporarily insane? It would be interesting to find out.

DEATH PENALTY: DA guided by report of diet drug: Man charged with murdering police officer in '03 gets life without parole... (article#7)

A man weighing in at more than 300 pounds in Atlanta, Georgia is not going to be sentenced to the death penalty because of a diet drug he is taking containing the chemical ephedra. Ephedra is known to sometimes "aggravated existing psychosis when taken in significant doses." Ephedra is used to control weight and boost sports performance and energy and is linked to a risk for heart attack and stroke. Why anyone would take it with the risk of insanity, heart attack, stroke, and psychotic murder is beyond me, but the point is that he was let off because of "temporary insanity", which was one of the aspects I was looking at for reasons not to apply the death sentence to every situation.