Lethal Injection

Overview 

All states and the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment use lethal injec­tion as their pri­ma­ry method of exe­cu­tion. Jurisdictions use a vari­ety of pro­to­cols typ­i­cal­ly employ­ing one, two, or three drugs. Most three-drug pro­to­cols use an anes­thet­ic or seda­tive, fol­lowed by a drug to par­a­lyze the inmate, and final­ly a drug to stop the heart. The one and two-drug pro­to­cols typ­i­cal­ly use an over­dose of an anes­thet­ic or seda­tive to cause death.

Although the con­sti­tu­tion­al­i­ty of lethal injec­tion has been upheld by the Supreme Court, the spe­cif­ic appli­ca­tions used in states con­tin­ues to be wide­ly chal­lenged pri­or to each exe­cu­tion. Because it is increas­ing­ly dif­fi­cult to obtain the drugs used in ear­li­er exe­cu­tions, states have resort­ed to exper­i­ment­ing with new drugs and drug com­bi­na­tions to car­ry out exe­cu­tions, result­ing in numer­ous pro­longed and painful exe­cu­tions. States are also turn­ing to pre­vi­ous­ly dis­card­ed forms of exe­cu­tion, such as the elec­tric chair and gas cham­ber, in the event that lethal drugs can­not be obtained.

At Issue 

Even though the issues sur­round­ing lethal injec­tion are far from set­tled, states are attempt­ing to cut off debate by con­ceal­ing their exe­cu­tion prac­tices under a veil of secre­cy. Recently passed laws bar the pub­lic from learn­ing the sources of lethal drugs being used, mak­ing it impos­si­ble to judge the reli­a­bil­i­ty of the man­u­fac­tur­er or the pos­si­ble expi­ra­tion of these drugs.

What DPI Offers 

DPI has state-by-state sum­maries of the meth­ods of exe­cu­tion cur­rent­ly in place and the types of drugs used in each exe­cu­tion in the past ten years. A DPI report cov­ers the exe­cu­tion secre­cy laws that have been imposed in many states. Statements from var­i­ous phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal com­pa­nies bar­ring the use of their drugs in exe­cu­tions are also provided.