In 1977, Oklahoma became the first state to adopt lethal injection as a means of execution, though it would be five more years until Charles Brooks would become the first person executed by lethal injection in Texas on December 2, 1982. Today, every state that has the death penalty authorizes execution by lethal injection. When this method is used, the condemned person is usually bound to a gurney and a member of the execution team positions several heart monitors on this skin. Two needles (one is a back-up) are then inserted into usable veins, usually in the prisoner’s arms. Long tubes connect the needle through a hole in a cement block wall to several intravenous drips. The first is a harmless saline solution that is started immediately. Then, at the warden’s signal, a curtain is raised exposing the prisoner to the witnesses in an adjoining room. The process then differs depending upon whether the state uses a single drug or multi-drug protocol.
In the one-drug executions, the prisoner is injected with an overdose of pentobarbital. In the multi-drug executions, states start with a sedative, previously sodium thiopental but more recently drugs such as midazolam, which is supposed to put the prisoner to sleep. Next, a paralytic drug, typically vecuronium bromide or pancuronium bromide, is injected, which paralyzes the entire muscle system and stops the prisoner’s breathing. Finally, the flow of potassium chloride stops the heart. Death results from anesthetic overdose and respiratory and cardiac arrest while the condemned person is unconscious. [2][5] Medical ethics preclude doctors from participating in executions. However, a doctor will certify the prisoner is dead. This lack of medical participation can be problematic because often injections are performed by inexperienced technicians or orderlies. If a member of the execution team injects the drugs into a muscle instead of a vein, or if the needle becomes clogged, extreme pain can result. Many prisoners have damaged veins resulting from intravenous drug use and it is sometimes difficult to find a usable vein, resulting in long delays while the prisoner remains strapped to the gurney. [2][5]
Seeking a more humane method of execution than hanging, New York built the first electric chair in 1888 and executed William Kemmler in 1890. Soon, other states adopted this execution method. Today, electrocution is not used as the sole method of execution in any state. Electrocution was the sole method in Nebraska until the State Supreme Court ruled the method unconstitutional in February 2008. For execution by the electric chair, the person is usually shaved and strapped to a chair with belts that cross his chest, groin, legs, and arms. A metal skullcap-shaped electrode is attached to the scalp and forehead over a sponge moistened with saline. The sponge must not be too wet or the saline short-circuits the electric current, and not too dry, as it would then have a very high resistance. An additional electrode is moistened with conductive jelly (Electro-Creme) and attached to a portion of the prisoner’s leg that has been shaved to reduce resistance to electricity. The prisoner is then blindfolded. [4][5] After the execution team has withdrawn to the observation room, the warden signals the executioner, who pulls a handle to connect the power supply. A jolt of between 500 and 2000 volts, which lasts for about 30 seconds, is given. The current surges and is then turned off, at which time the body is seen to relax. The doctors wait a few seconds for the body to cool down and then check to see if the prisoner’s heart is still beating. If it is, another jolt is applied. This process continues until the prisoner is dead. The prisoner’s hands often grip the chair and there may be violent movement of the limbs which can result in dislocation or fractures. The tissues swell. Defecation occurs. Steam or smoke rises and there is a smell of burning. [4][5] U.S. Supreme Court Justice William Brennan once offered the following description of an execution by electric chair:
…the prisoner’s eyeballs sometimes pop out and rest on [his] cheeks. The prisoner often defecates, urinates, and vomits blood and drool. The body turns bright red as its temperature rises, and the prisoner’s flesh swells and his skin stretches to the point of breaking. Sometimes the prisoner catches fire….Witnesses hear a loud and sustained sound like bacon frying, and the sickly sweet smell of burning flesh permeates the chamber. [2]
At postmortem, the body is hot enough to blister if touched, and the autopsy is delayed while the internal organs cool. There are third degree burns with blackening where the electrodes met the skin of the scalp and legs. According to Robert H. Kirschner, the deputy chief medical examiner of Cook County, “The brain appears cooked in most cases.” [5]
In 1924, the use of cyanide gas was introduced as Nevada sought a more humane way of executing its condemned prisoners. Gee Jon was the first person executed by lethal gas. The state tried to pump cyanide gas into Jon’s cell while he slept. This proved impossible because the gas leaked from his cell, so the gas chamber was constructed. [1] Today, five states authorize lethal gas as a method of execution, but all have lethal injection as an alternative method. A federal court in California found this method to be cruel and unusual punishment. For execution by this method, the condemned person is strapped to a chair in an airtight chamber. Below the chair rests a pail of sulfuric acid. A long stethoscope is typically affixed to the prisoner so that a doctor outside the chamber can pronounce death. Once everyone has left the chamber, the room is sealed. The warden then gives a signal to the executioner who flicks a lever that releases crystals of sodium cyanide into the pail. This causes a chemical reaction that releases hydrogen cyanide gas. [5] The prisoner is instructed to breathe deeply to speed up the process. Most prisoners, however, try to hold their breath, and some struggle.
The prisoner does not lose consciousness immediately. According to former San Quenton, California, Penitentiary warden, Clifton Duffy, “At first there is evidence of extreme horror, pain, and strangling. The eyes pop. The skin turns purple and the victim begins to drool.” [5] Caryl Chessman, before he died in California’s gas chamber in 1960 told reporters that he would nod his head if it hurt. Witnesses said he nodded his head for several minutes. [2] According to Dr. Richard Traystman of John Hopkins University School of Medicine, “The person is unquestionably experiencing pain and extreme anxiety…The sensation is similar to the pain felt by a person during a heart attack, where essentially the heart is being deprived of oxygen.” The prisoner dies from hypoxia, the cutting-off of oxygen to the brain. [5] At postmortem, an exhaust fan sucks the poison air out of the chamber, and the corpse is sprayed with ammonia to neutralize any remaining traces of cyanide. About a half an hour later, orderlies enter the chamber, wearing gas masks and rubber gloves. Their training manual advises them to ruffle the victim’s hair to release any trapped cyanide gas before removing the deceased. [5]
As of April 17, 2015, Oklahoma introduced death by nitrogen gas as an alternative to lethal injection if the necessary drugs cannot be found or if that method is found unconstitutional. In 2018, Alabama legislators authorized the use of nitrogen gas in executions and officials began working on an execution protocol. Execution by “nitrogen hypoxia” results in death by suffocation as a result of the individual being forced to breathe pure nitrogen, depriving the brain and body of oxygen. [6] While nitrogen accounts for nearly 78% of the air humans breathe, when inhaled on its own, nitrogen is deadly. According to Alabama’s heavily redacted nitrogen hypoxia protocol, members of the execution team are to place a mask over the prisoner’s face, through which nitrogen gas will be pumped, depriving the prisoner of oxygen and causing his death.
On January 25, 2024, Alabama executed Kenneth Smith using this method, the first execution of this kind in American history. Though the Alabama Attorney General assured courts that nitrogen hypoxia would result in “unconsciousness in seconds,” media witnesses and others reported that Mr. Smith appeared awake for several minutes after the flow of nitrogen gas began. [6] Some witnesses reported that Mr. Smith “shook and writhed” for at least four minutes before breathing heavily for another few minutes. Department of Corrections Commissioner John Hamm said that the nitrogen gas flowed for approximately 15 minutes and Mr. Smith was pronounced dead 32 minutes after the curtains opened in the execution chamber.
In April 2024, the Louisiana legislator passed legislation authorizing the use of nitrogen gas as a method of execution. Similar legislation introduced in Ohio in January 2024 is still pending in committee.
On March 23, 2015, firing squad was reauthorized in Utah as a viable method of execution if, and only if the state was unable to obtain the drugs necessary to carry out a lethal injection execution. Prior to this reauthorization, firing squad was only a method of execution in Utah if chosen by the prisoner before lethal injection became the sole means of execution. Mississippi, Oklahoma, and South Carolina subsequently authorized firing squad as an alternative method of execution.
The most recent execution by this method was that of Ronnie Gardner. By his own choosing, Gardner was executed by firing squad in Utah on June 17, 2010. For execution by this method, the prisoner is typically bound to a chair with leather straps across his waist and head, in front of an oval-shaped canvas wall. The chair is surrounded by sandbags to absorb the prisoner’s blood. A black hood is pulled over the prisoner’s head. A doctor locates the prisoner’s heart with a stethoscope and pins a circular white cloth target over it. Standing in an enclosure 20 feet away, five shooters are armed with .30 caliber rifles loaded with single rounds. One of the shooters is given blank rounds. South Carolina’s execution protocol calls for the use of three shooters, each of whom is provided live rounds. Each of the shooters aims his rifle through a slot in the canvas and fires at the prisoner. [5] The prisoner dies as a result of blood loss caused by rupture of the heart or a large blood vessel, or tearing of the lungs. The person shot loses consciousness when shock causes a fall in the supply of blood to the brain. If the shooters miss the heart, by accident or intention, the prisoner bleeds to death slowly. [4][5]
Until the 1890s, hanging was the primary method of execution used in the United States. Hanging was still authorized in Delaware and Washington before those states abolished the death penalty in 2016 and 2018, although both had lethal injection as an alternative method of execution.
For execution by hanging, the prisoner may be weighed the day before the execution, and a rehearsal is done using a sandbag of the same weight as the prisoner. This is to determine the length of ‘drop’ necessary to ensure a quick death. If the rope is too long, the prisoner could be decapitated, and if it is too short, the strangulation could take as long as 45 minutes. The rope, which should be 3/4-inch to 1 1/4-inch in diameter, must be boiled and stretched to eliminate spring or coiling. The knot should be lubricated with wax or soap “to ensure a smooth sliding action,” according to the 1969 U.S. Army manual. [3][4]
Immediately before the execution, the prisoner’s hands and legs are secured, he or she is blindfolded, and the noose is placed around the neck, with the knot behind the left ear. The execution takes place when a trap-door is opened and the prisoner falls through. The prisoner’s weight should cause a rapid fracture-dislocation of the neck. However, instantaneous death rarely occurs. [5]
If the prisoner has strong neck muscles, is very light, if the ‘drop’ is too short, or the noose has been wrongly positioned, the fracture-dislocation is not rapid and death results from slow asphyxiation. If this occurs the face becomes engorged, the tongue protrudes, the eyes pop, the body defecates, and violent movements of the limbs occur. [3][5]