Lethal injection

Lethal injection is a method of execution. It involves killing a person by injecting them with poison or poisons.

In the United States, lethal injections generally use a series of three drugs in fatal doses. Lethal injection is the most common method of execution in the United States.^[1]

The idea of lethal injection was first suggested in New York in 1888. In 1977, Oklahoma became the first state to pass a law saying they could use lethal injection.

Texas was the first state to use lethal injection for an execution. This first happened when Charlie Brooks was executed in 1982. Thirty-four US states now use it as a form of capital punishment.^[2] Other countries to use it are China, Taiwan, and Guatemala.^[2]

Seventeen prisoners were executed in the United States in 2020. Five states and the Federal Government carried out executions.^[3]

Lethal injection generally uses three chemicals. These chemicals are usually sodium thiopental (an anesthetic), pancuronium bromide (used to paralyze the person being injected), and potassium chloride (to stop the heart so that the person being injected dies).^[4]

In the United States, a chemical shortage has made some states have to wait to carry out executions. Other states have changed the chemicals they use in the lethal injection process.^[5] Executioners have experimented with injectable forms or potassium or fentanyl. These executions caused complications and some were cancelled, because potassium for example caused a lot of needless pain when injected in large doses (which it was known to do).

• Hanging (death)
• Animal euthanasia
• Veterinarian

• Time.com: A Brief History of Lethal Injection Archived 2013-08-26 at the Wayback Machine