Additional Resources

DPI Resources:

• Methods of Execution by State (includes alter­na­tive meth­ods inmates may choose)
• Botched Executions — includ­ing descrip­tions of the flawed lethal injec­tions in 2014 in Ohio, Oklahoma, and Arizona
• DPIC Report Behind the Curtain: Secrecy and the Death Penalty in the United States
• DPIC Podcast: Discussions With DPIC — Behind the Curtain
• DPIC Podcast: Discussions With DPIC — Anesthesiologist Dr. Joel Zivot on What Prisoner Autopsies Tell Us About Lethal Injection
• Baze v. Rees — Excerpts from the Supreme Court Opinion in Baze v. Rees

Archival DPI Content:

• Lethal Injection News (updat­ed through March 19, 2019)
• 2010 and before lethal injection news
• Lethal Injection: Official Actions and Court Cases

Non-DPI Resource Websites:

• Lethal Injection Information Center (Initiative of Reprieve)
• Lethal Injection Project (Component of the Death Penalty Clinic at U.C. Berkeley School of Law)
• Glossip v. Gross web­site (Discussion of 2015 Supreme Court case)
• “Lethal injec­tion scram­ble” map from ACLU of Northern California shows which states have obtained sodi­um thiopen­tal from for­eign sources, and includes infor­ma­tion on price and quan­ti­ty of drugs and DEA seizures

Articles and Other Publications:

• United States Department of Justice, Office of Legal Policy, Review of the Federal Execution Protocol Addendum and Manner of Execution Regulations, January 2025
• Sarat, Austin, Theo Dassin, and Aidan Orr, A Dark Shadow: The Intensification and Expansion of Lethal Injection Drug Secrecy, British Journal of American Legal Studies 12.1 (2023): 1 – 26.
• Zivot, Joel B., Mark A. Edgar, and David A. Lubarsky, Execution by lethal injec­tion: Autopsy fid­ings of pul­monary ede­ma, medRxiv (2022): 2022-08
• Kim, Elizabeth, and Richard J. Levy, The Role of Anaesthesiologists in Lethal Injection: A Call to Action, The Lancet 395, no. 10225 (2020): 749 – 54.
• Mears, Call M., Risk of Choking to Death on One’s Own Blood Is Not Cruel and Unusual Punishment, Mo. L. Rev. 85 (2020): 609.
• Harmon, Talia Roitberg, Michael Cassidy, and Richelle Kloch, Examination of deci­sion mak­ing and botch­es lethal injec­tion exe­cu­tions in Texas, American behav­ioral sci­en­tist 64.12 (2020): 1715 – 1732
• Comity, Finality, and Oklahoma’s Lethal Injection Protocol, Jon Yorke, Oklahoma Law Review (2017)
• Legally Indefensible: Requiring Death Row Prisoners to Prove Available Execution Alternatives, Megan McCracken, The Champion (January/​February 2017).
• Through the Glass Darkly: What Oklahoma’s Lethal Injection Regime Tells Us about Secrecy, Incompetence, Disregard and Experimentation Nationwide, Megan McCracken and Jennifer Moreno, ABA Human Rights Magazine (2016 – 2017 Vol. 42).
• American Bar Association Resolution 108B call­ing for all death penal­ty juris­dic­tions ​“to pro­mul­gate exe­cu­tion pro­to­cols in an open and trans­par­ent man­ner and require pub­lic review and com­ment pri­or to final adop­tion of any exe­cu­tion pro­to­col, and require dis­clo­sure to the pub­lic by all rel­e­vant agen­cies of all rel­e­vant infor­ma­tion regard­ing exe­cu­tion pro­ce­dures.” (February 9, 2015).
• If Oregon Can Give Death With Dignity, Why Can’t Death Row?, Tamara Tabo, Above the Law (November 24, 2014)
• What 13 States Aren’t Telling You About How They Execute Prisoners, Tasneem Nashrulla, Buzzfeed (June 16, 2014)
• Glance: Execution Drug Secrecy in 5 States, Associated Press (April 5, 2014)
• Oklahoma halts dou­ble exe­cu­tion after one is botched, Matt Pearce, Molly Hennessy-Fiske, and Paresh Dave, Los Angeles Times (April 29, 2014)
• Executions Stall as States Seek Different Drugs, Manny Fernandez, New York Times (November 8, 2013)
• Europe Pushes to Keep Lethal Injection Drugs From U.S. Prisons, Makiko Kitamura and Adi Narayan, Bloomberg Businessweek (February 7, 2013)
• Lethal injec­tion drug access could put exe­cu­tions on hold, Kimberley Leonard, iWatch News (April 4, 2012)
• Cost of exe­cu­tions sky­rock­et­ing in Texas, oth­er states, Mike Ward, Austin American-Statesman (February 23, 2012)
• Ohio faces snags in exe­cu­tion sys­tem, Andrew Welsh-Huggins (AP), cov­er­ing Ohio’s new­ly-sug­gest­ed back­up exe­cu­tion pro­to­col, which would use two drugs pre­vi­ous­ly untest­ed in lethal injec­tions (August 31, 2011)
• Cruel and Usual?: Is Capital Punishment by Lethal Injection Quick and Painless?, Larry Greenmeier, Scientific American (October 27, 2010)
• Death-row drug dilem­ma, Emma Marris, Nature (January 27, 2011)
• Execution by Lethal Injection: A Quarter Century of State Killing, Amnesty International (October 2007)
• But Can it Be Fixed? A Look at Constitutional Challenges to Lethal Injection Executions, Ellen Kreizberg and David Richter, Santa Clara University School of Law, Legal Studies Research Papers Series, Working Paper No. 07 – 28 (June 2007); 47 Santa Clara L. Rev. 445 (2007).
• The Lethal Injection Quandary: How Medicine Has Dismantled the Death Penalty, Deborah Denno, Fordham Legal Studies Research Paper No. 983732 (May 1, 2007); 76 Fordham L. Rev. 49 (2007).
• The Chaos Behind California Executions, Henry Weinstein and Maura Dolan, L.A. Times, Oct. 2, 2006 (hear­ings in California on lethal injections).
• Lethal Incompetence, Ty Alper (Boalt School of Law), The Champion, Sept.-Oct. 2006.
• Finding Bickel Gold in a Hill of Beans, Douglas Berman, Cato Supreme Court Review, 2006 (on the legal ram­i­fi­ca­tions of Hill v. Crosby).
• When Legislatures Delegate Death: The Troubling Paradox Behind State Uses of Electrocution and Lethal Injection and What It Says About Us, Deborah Denno, 63 Ohio State Law Journal 63 (2002)
• Human Rights Watch Report on Lethal Injection
  • Human Rights Watch Letter to Gov. Bush in Hill Case