Lethal injection is the practice of injecting one or more drugs into a person (typically a barbiturate, paralytic, and potassium chloride) for the express purpose of causing death. The main application for this procedure is capital punishment. The drugs cause the person to become unconscious, stop breathing, and develop a cardiac arrest, in that order.
First developed in the United States, the method has become a legal means of execution in China, Thailand, Guatemala, Taiwan, the Maldives, Nigeria, and Vietnam, though Guatemala abolished the death penalty for civilian cases in 2017 and has not conducted an execution since 2000, and the Maldives has never carried out an execution since its independence. Although Taiwan permits lethal injection as an execution method, no executions have been carried out in this manner; the same is true for Nigeria. Lethal injection was also used in the Philippines until the country re-abolished the death penalty in 2006.
Although primarily introduced as a more "humane" method of execution, lethal injection has been subject to criticism, being described by some as cruel and unusual. Opponents particularly critique the operation of lethal injections by untrained corrections officers and the lack of guarantee that the victim will be unconscious in every individual case. There have been instances in which condemned individuals were injected with paralytics and then with a cardiac arrest-inducing agent while still conscious; this technique has been compared to torture. Proponents often say that there is no reasonable or less cruel alternative.
History Lethal injection gained popularity in the late 20th century as a form of execution intended to supplant electrocution, gas inhalation, hanging and firing squad, which were considered less humane. It has become the most common form of legal execution in the United States.
Lethal injection was proposed on January 17, 1888, by Julius Mount Bleyer, a New York doctor who praised it as being cheaper than hanging. Bleyer's idea would not be revived until the mid-1970s, when Texas and Oklahoma adopted the modern version of the method; a series of botched executions led to an eventual rise of public disapproval of electrocutions in the 1980s. Lethal injections were first used by Nazi Germany to execute prisoners during World War II. Nazi Germany developed the Aktion T4 euthanasia program led by Karl Brandt as one method to terminate Lebensunwertes Leben ("life unworthy of life").R. McGowen. The Lethal Injection: The Origins of Lethal Injection. During the war, lethal injections were also administered to children detained at the Sisak concentration camp by the camp's commander, the physician Antun Najžer. The Royal Commission on Capital Punishment 1949–1953 considered lethal injection but eventually ruled it out after pressure from the British Medical Association (BMA).
Implementation On May 10, 1977, Oklahoma became the first U.S. state to approve lethal injection when Governor David Boren signed a bill into law."Oklahoma OKs Drug Executions", UPI report in Fort Lauderdale (FL) News, May 11, 1977, p.8 Episcopal Reverend Bill Wiseman had introduced it into the Oklahoma legislature, where it passed and was quickly sent to the Governor's desk (Title 22, Section 1014(A)). The next day, Texas became the second U.S. state to approve a lethal injection law. Since then, until 2004, 37 of the 38 states using capital punishment introduced lethal injection statutes (the last state, Nebraska, maintained electrocution as its sole method until adopting injection in 2009, after its Supreme Court deemed the electric chair unconstitutional).
On May 11, 1977, the day after the new method had become state law, Oklahoma's state medical examiner, Jay Chapman, proposed a new, less painful method of execution known as Chapman's protocol: "An intravenous (IV) saline drip shall be started in the prisoner's arm, into which shall be introduced a lethal injection consisting of an ultrashort-acting barbiturate in combination with a chemical paralytic." The Chapman protocol was approved by anesthesiologist Stanley Deutsch, formerly Head of the Department of Anesthesiology of the University of Oklahoma College of Medicine. On August 29, 1977, Texas adopted the new method of execution, switching from electrocution.
On December 7, 1982, Texas became the first U.S. state or territory in the world to use lethal injection to carry out capital punishment, for the execution of Charles Brooks, Jr.
China began using it in 1997, Guatemala in 1996, the Philippines in 1999, Thailand in 2003, Taiwan in 2005, and Vietnam first used this method in 2013. The Philippines abolished the death penalty in 2006, with their last execution being that of Alex Bartolome in January 2000. All seven executions made from 1999 to 2000 were carried out using lethal injection. Guatemalan law still allows for the death penalty and lethal injection is the sole method allowed, but none have been carried out since 2000 when the country televised the live double executions of Amílcar Cetino Pérez and Tomás Cerrate Hernández.
Complications of executions and cessation of supply of lethal injection drugs By early 2014, a number of botched executions involving lethal injection and a rising shortage of suitable drugs had some U.S. states reconsidering lethal injection as a form of execution. Tennessee, which had previously offered inmates a choice between lethal injection and the electric chair, passed a law in May 2014 that gave the state the option to use the electric chair if lethal injection drugs were either unavailable or declared unconstitutional. At the same time, Wyoming and Utah were considering the use of execution by firing squad in addition to other existing execution methods.
In 2016, Pfizer joined over 20 American and European pharmaceutical manufacturers that had previously blocked the sale of their drugs for use in lethal injections, effectively closing the open market for FDA-approved manufacturers for any potential lethal execution drug. In the execution of Carey Dean Moore on August 14, 2018, the State of Nebraska used a novel drug cocktail comprising diazepam, fentanyl, cisatracurium, and potassium chloride, over the strong objections of the German pharmaceutical company Fresenius Kabi.
Potassium acetate had been incorrectly used in place of potassium chloride in Oklahoma in January 2015 for the execution of Charles Frederick Warner. In August 2017, the State of Florida first used the drug in the execution of Mark James Asay using a combination of etomidate, rocuronium bromide, and potassium acetate as part of a new protocol.
, seven condemned people had survived medical problems when the executioners could not access a vein, and an eighth, Christa Pike, had survived receiving the drugs, according to Robin M. Maher, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center.
Procedures
Procedure in the United States In the United States, the typical lethal injection begins with the condemned person being strapped onto a gurney; two IV cannulas are then inserted, one in each arm. Only one is necessary to carry out the execution; the other is reserved as a backup in the event the primary line fails. A line leading from the IV line in an adjacent room is attached to the prisoner's IV and secured so that the line does not snap during the injections.
The arm of the condemned person is swabbed with alcohol before the cannula is inserted. The needles and equipment used are sterilized. Although the person is not expected to survive the injection, there are nonetheless reasons to use measures against infection. First, sterile equipment is mass-produced and readily available from medical suppliers. Secondly, the prisoner could receive a stay of execution after the cannulae have been inserted, as in the case of James Autry in October 1983. Third, the use of unsterilized equipment would be a hazard to the prison personnel in case of an accidental needle stick injury.
Following the connection of the lines, saline drips are started in both arms. This, too, is standard medical procedure: it must be ascertained that the IV lines are clear, ensuring the chemicals have not precipitated in them and blocked the needle, preventing the drugs from reaching the subject. A heart monitor is attached to the inmate.
In most states, the IV injection is a series of drugs given in a set sequence, designed to first induce unconsciousness followed by death through paralysis of respiratory muscles and by cardiac arrest through depolarization of cardiac muscle cells. The execution of the condemned in most states involves three separate injections (in sequential order): Sodium thiopental or pentobarbital: ultra-short-action barbiturate, an anesthetic agent used at a high dose that renders the person unconscious in less than 30 seconds. Depression of respiratory activity is one of the characteristic actions of this drug. Consequently, it will—even in the absence of the following two drugs—cause death due to lack of breathing, as happens with overdoses of opioids. Pancuronium bromide: non-depolarizing muscle relaxant, which causes complete, fast, and sustained paralysis of the striated skeletal muscles, including the diaphragm and the rest of the respiratory muscles; this would eventually cause death by asphyxiation. Potassium chloride: a potassium salt, which increases the blood and cardiac concentration of potassium to stop the heart via an abnormal heartbeat and thus cause death by cardiac arrest.
The drugs are administered sequentially rather than together for practical and ethical reasons. A mixture could cause the drugs to precipitate from solution, thereby reducing drug delivery and risking pain due to vascular blockage. The potassium chloride, in particular, would cause severe pain as it travels through the bloodstream and distress as it acts upon the heart, were the person not first rendered fully unconscious.
The intravenous tubing leads to a room next to the execution chamber, usually separated from the condemned by a curtain or wall. Typically, a prison employee trained in venipuncture inserts the needle, while a second prison employee orders, prepares, and loads the drugs into the lethal injection syringes. Two other staff members take each of the three syringes and secure them into the IVs. After the curtain is opened to allow the witnesses to see inside the chamber, the condemned person is then permitted to make a final statement. Following this, the warden signals that the execution may commence, and the (either prison staff or private citizens depending on the jurisdiction) then manually inject the three drugs in sequence. During the execution, the condemned's cardiac rhythm is monitored.
Death is pronounced after cardiac activity stops. Death usually occurs within seven minutes; however, due to complications in finding a suitable vein, the entire procedure can take up to two hours, as was the case with the execution of Christopher Newton on May 24, 2007. According to state law, if a physician's participation in the execution is prohibited for reasons of medical ethics, then the death ruling can be made by the state medical examiner's office. After confirmation that death has occurred, a coroner signs the condemned's death certificate.