The arm of the condemned person is swabbed with alcohol before the cannula is inserted. The needles and equipment used are sterilized. Questions have been raised about why these precautions against infection are performed despite the purpose of the injection being death.
However, prison doctors do still swab the condemned man's arm with alcohol, prior to inserting the needle. This is probably just out of habit and to prevent possible claims that the execution method is somehow less humane than it needs to be.
Most three-drug protocols use an anesthetic or sedative, followed by a drug to paralyze the inmate, and finally a drug to stop the heart. The one and two-drug protocols typically use an overdose of an anesthetic or sedative to cause death.
"It's like a burning cocktail coursing through your veins," says Lubarsky, referring to potassium chloride. "Once it reaches the heart, it stops the heart, and you do die. But in the process there is a period of just intense and searing pain."
Lethal Injection
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.
The average time to death once a lethal-injection protocol has been started is about 7–11 minutes.
He had been strapped to the gurney for four hours. Smith is one of only two people alive today who have survived an execution procedure in the US.
Experts say lethal injection is the most botched of the execution methods, estimated to go wrong more frequently than any other method.
Lethal injection avoids many of the unpleasant effects of other forms of execution: bodily mutilation and bleeding due to decapitation, smell of burning flesh in electrocution, disturbing sights or sounds in lethal gassing and hanging, the problem of involuntary defecation and urination.
Some say firing squads are less cruel and painful than lethal injection, and less likely to be botched; others say it's not so cut-and-dry and there are other factors to consider.
*State law mandates that only specific people are allowed to witness an execution. Eligible witnesses: Immediate family members of the victim.
Executioners often wore masks to hide their identity and avoid any retribution. They were often booed and jeered, especially if the person to be executed was a popular or sympathetic figure.
In the United States, an execution chamber will usually contain a lethal injection table. In most cases, a witness room is located adjacent to an execution chamber, where witnesses may watch the execution through glass windows.
The blindfold is often as much for the benefit of the executioners as it is for the prisoner. When the condemned person is able to look directly at the members of the firing squad, it greatly reduces the executioners' anonymity, creating a more stressful situation for those simply fulfilling their duty.
Georgia began lethal injection by three drugs in 2001 and switched to one-drug, pentobarbital, in 2012. As a single compound, a toxic dose turns off all electrical impulses in the brain and causes the entire cardiovascular system to fail.
The method applies one or more high voltage electrical currents through electrodes attached to the head and legs of a condemned inmate, who sits strapped to a chair. A typical electrocution lasts about two minutes. Electrocution was first adopted in 1888 in New York as a quicker and more humane alternative to hanging.
In practice, China traditionally uses the firing squad as its standard method of execution. However, in recent years, China has adopted lethal injection as its sole method of execution, though execution by firing squad can still be administered.
Lingchi ([lǐŋʈʂʰɻ̩̌]; Chinese: 凌遲), translated variously as the slow process, the lingering death, or slow slicing, and also known as death by a thousand cuts, was a form of torture and execution used in China from roughly 900 CE up until the practice ended around the early 1900s.
Death Penalty
In China, where numbers remain a state secret, thousands of people are believed to be executed and sentenced to death each year. As our chart shows, Iran comes second only after China with at least 576 people known to have been executed in 2022, up 55 percent from the year.
Louis XVI's Execution
As the blade fell down, he screamed (well, wouldn't you?) The problem was that his neck was so fat that the guillotine failed to slice his head off the first time. However, it did manage to come off after a second attempt.
Is Death By Electrocution Painful? Yes, death by electrocution is painful since the electric current produces involuntary muscle contractions, burns, and ultimately cardiac arrest. Exactly how painful it is depends on how strong the current is and how quickly the person loses consciousness.
The last person to be executed by a firing squad was convicted killer Ronnie Lee Gardner, according to the group, who was shot to death by a firing squad in a Utah prison in 2010.
Often, death row inmates choose pies, and I've included a variety in the cookbook. Fried chicken and chicken fried steak, which are popular southern dishes, were also common among last meals. But ice cream and milkshakes topped the list. Almost every person, if they requested dessert, wanted some type of ice cream.
On May 3, 2023, the family of Joe Nathan James (pictured) sued the state of Alabama for the pain and suffering it caused during his three-hour-long lethal injection in 2022. It is believed to be the longest known execution in U.S. history.