Prologue: It is difficult to write about the death penalty without taking a side, but I am going to attempt to remain neutral. Additionally, this topic may make some readers uncomfortable.

A debate currently taking place in California questions whether lethal injection is a cruel and unusual form of execution. Out of all methods of execution currently practiced in the United States, lethal injection is the most common; if the California case determines that it is cruel and unusual, significant changes may be coming for how America executes its prisoners.

There are currently five methods of execution used in the United States. The most common, lethal injection, is also used in China, the Philippines, Thailand, and Guatemala. Its first mention in U.S. history was in 1888, when a New York doctor suggested its use; the idea was discarded in favor of the electric chair. The first state to approve this method of execution was Oklahoma in 1977, when it was suggested by an anesthesiology expert answering a call for a cheaper alternative to repairing the state’s electric chair. The first prisoner to die by lethal injection was actually in Texas, where Charles Brooks was executed in December 1982. The process of lethal injection is similar in most states, and begins before the inmate is even brought to the execution chamber. An electrocardiogram machine is attached to the prisoner, and this device will eventually determine that the execution has been completed. In a preparation room adjacent to the execution chamber, the condemned lies down on the gurney and is strapped down with several buckled straps along the length of their body. The arms have separate shelves on which to rest, and they are also strapped down at multiple points. Because most states require the use of a backup injection site, two locations on the body are prepared - typically one in each arm, but based on the prisoner’s medical history, prior history of drug use, and physical characteristics either or both sites may be located anywhere on the body a usable vein can be found. The site is swabbed with alcohol, and the needles are inserted. At this point everyone leaves the chamber, and the curtain is lifted for the witnesses who are on hand to view the execution. The tubes connected to the needles are run into an anteroom, where the anonymous executioner will either start the flow of drugs manually or flip a switch on a machine that delivers the drugs in appropriate intervals; the manual method is preferred because of the possibility of mechanical failure. The first mixture through the tubes is a saline solution, administered for rinsing purposes as it is in many other realms. The first drug actually sent is sodium thiopental, a barbiturate used as an anesthetic. Based on the amount used, the inmate will either feel nothing from this point forward, or continue to feel the rest of the process. Following another saline rinse, pancuronium bromide is used as a paralytic agent. This includes breathing, as the lungs and diaphragm are also paralyzed. A final saline rinse is given before the final drug, potassium chloride, flows through the tubes, interrupting the electrical signals that keep the heart beating. The prisoner’s death is a combination of barbiturate overdose, respiratory failure, and cardiac arrest.

Lethal injection is an option for prisoners in all states with the death penalty except for Nebraska, which uses electrocution as its sole method. Originally developed as an alternative to hanging, the first person executed by electrocution in the United States was William Kemmler in 1890. Prisoners in the ten states using electrocution (outside of Nebraska, it is an elective form of execution) are shaved, reducing electrical resistance, and strapped to the infamous electric chair. A skullcap-type electrode is placed on the prisoner’s head and another is attached to the leg using conductive jelly. An initial jolt of up to 2,000 volts knocks the condemned person unconscious, and then the flow of electricity is turned down to reduce burning. After a few minutes have passed to allow the body to cool, a doctor will enter the execution chamber to see if the prisoner is still breathing. If so, an additional jolt of electricity is administered; this may be done as many times as is necessary to complete the execution. This method is the one most frequently “botched” - there are numerous tales of the prisoner’s head catching on fire, and occasionally quite a few jolts are required, which leaves open the question of how much pain is caused by this method of execution.

Only five states permit the use of gas chambers in executions. Cyanide gas is the most common agent, and it has been in use in the United States since 1924. As in electrocution, the prisoner is strapped into a chair, seated directly over an open container with potassium cyanide pellets. Below this container is a tank, into which the executioner pours sulfuric acid via a long tube. Once the chamber has been cleared and sealed, the curtain is raised for witnesses, and the executioner presses a lever that drops the pellets into the acid, causing a reaction that releases visible hydrogen cyanide gas. Although the prisoner is instructed to breathe deeply, some try to hold their breath, which delays the loss of consciousness and increases the pain and suffering felt by the prisoner. Once the prisoner appears to be dead, the chamber is purged and scrubbed before it is unsealed to admit the doctor who pronounces the prisoner dead. Clad in a gas mask and protective gear, the doctor ruffles the prisoner’s hair to release gas that may be trapped there. Despite this, it is possible for the autopsying doctor or the embalmer to encounter pockets of gas from within the body, causing personal injury.

The last person to be executed by a firing squad was John Albert Taylor in 1996; he died in Utah. After the prisoner is strapped to a chair, a doctor locates their heart using a stethoscope and pins a target over it. A team of shooters aims for the heart, and death is caused by rupture of the heart and/or lungs. Execution by firing squad was banned in Utah in 2004, but there are still four inmates on death row who selected this method, and they will have their requests carried out when their appointed time comes. Only Idaho and Oklahoma still have firing squads available; Oklahoma permits it when lethal injection and electrocution are ruled unconstitutional, and Idaho when lethal injection is impractical.

Currently, only Washington and New Hampshire still execute prisoners by hanging. Almost entirely replaced by lethal injection and electrocution, hanging is only used when other methods are impractical.

Essay word count: 1087
Additional resources: Death Penalty Information Center, Lethal Injection, Capital Punishment in the United States.
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