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Apr 22, 2024 · Lethal injection is the most widely-used method of execution, but many states authorize other methods including electrocution, lethal gas, and firing squad.
- Botched Executions
It is estimated that 3% of U.S. executions in the period...
- Description of Each Execution Method
Until the 1890s, hanging was the primary method of execution...
- Authorized Methods by State
Allows prisoners to choose between lethal injection and...
- Upcoming Executions
Please scroll over each state on the above map to see the...
- Crimes Punishable by Death
On December 14, 2023, Lake County, Florida prosecutors...
- Conditions on Death Row
Attorneys for Christa Pike, the only woman on Tennessee’s...
- Public Opinion
The death penalty continued its long-term decline in the...
- Botched Executions
- Lethal Injection
- Electrocution
- Gas Chamber
- Firing Squad
- Hanging
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,...
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 rul...
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. Today, five ...
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 me...
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 befo...
- Lethal injection. Carried out in: China, Vietnam, USA. The lethal injection generally consists of three chemicals: sodium pentotal (an anaesthetic), pancuronium bromide (used to paralyse the prisoner) and potassium chloride (used to stop the heart).
- Electrocution. Carried out in: USA. After the prisoner is shaved and strapped to a chair, a metal skullcap-shaped electrode is attached to their scalp and forehead over a sponge moistened with saline.
- Hanging. Carried out in: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Botswana, India, Iran, Iraq, Japan, Kuwait, Malaysia, Nigeria, Palestinian Authority (Hamas authorities, Gaza), South Sudan, Sudan.
- Shooting. Carried out in: China, Indonesia, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Taiwan, Yemen. Execution by firing squad typically involves the prisoner being bound to a chair (sitting) or a pole (standing), with a black hood pulled over their head.
Allows prisoners to choose between lethal injection and electrocution. If a prisoner does not choose, then the default method will be electrocution for those sentenced prior to June 8, 1995 (the effective date of the law) and lethal injection for those sentenced on or after June 8, 1995.
StateAuthorized MethodsAlabamaEffective 7/1/18, lethal injection will ...ArizonaAuthorizes lethal injection for persons ...ArkansasLethal injection is the method unless it ...CaliforniaProvides that lethal injection be ...May 21, 2024 · Capital punishment, execution of an offender sentenced to death after conviction by a court of law of a criminal offense. The term ‘death penalty’ is sometimes used interchangeably with ‘capital punishment,’ though imposition of the penalty is not always followed by execution. Learn more about capital punishment.
- Roger Hood
Jul 19, 2021 · Majorities of White (63%), Asian (63%) and Hispanic adults (56%) support the death penalty, but Black adults are evenly divided, with 49% in favor and 49% opposed. Views of the death penalty differ by religious affiliation.
Indeed, every known method of carrying out executions is barbaric and consists of unjustified retribution, from death on the gallows to death by lethal injection. The traditional method of death by hanging was also easily bungled: If the drop was too short, there would be a slow and agonizing death by strangulation; if the drop was too long ...
