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| The saline is inserted into usable veins |
Lethal injection is the
practice of killing a person using a lethal dose of drugs administered
intravenously. Two methods of lethal injection exist today, one using a
three-drug protocol and another using one large dose of a barbiturate. 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, all of the 32 states that have the death penalty use this method.
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 inmate’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
inmate to the witnesses in an adjoining room. Then, the inmate is injected with
sodium thiopental - an anesthetic, which puts the inmate to sleep. Next flows
pavulon or pancuronium bromide, which paralyzes the entire muscle system and
stops the inmate's breathing. Finally, the flow of potassium chloride stops the
heart.
Lawmakers stress that lethal injection is both cheap and “appears more humane and visually palatable relative to other methods.”. “Despite the numerous documented accounts of botched lethal injections over the decades,” death penalty scholar Deborah Denno claims, state legislatures have continually “turned to medicine to rescue the death penalty.” In short, lethal injection has come to represent the ultimate form of humane and sterile execution in America’s institution of capital punishment.
Also 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 became the first
person executed by lethal injection in Texas on December 7, 1982.
Lawmakers stress that lethal injection is both cheap and “appears more humane and visually palatable relative to other methods.”. “Despite the numerous documented accounts of botched lethal injections over the decades,” death penalty scholar Deborah Denno claims, state legislatures have continually “turned to medicine to rescue the death penalty.” In short, lethal injection has come to represent the ultimate form of humane and sterile execution in America’s institution of capital punishment.
Also 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 became the first
person executed by lethal injection in Texas on December 7, 1982.
Death results from anesthetic overdose and
respiratory and cardiac arrest while the condemned person is unconscious.
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