Executions

Lethal Injection

Though lethal injection has been used for a majority of the executions carried out in the modern era, it is plagued by problematic executions and controversy.

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 DPIC Offers

DPIC 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 recent DPIC 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.


News & Developments


News

Jul 27, 2018

Public Health Experts, Generic-Pharmaceuticals Association Warn Lethal-Injection Policies Put Public Health at Risk

State lethal-injec­tion prac­tices may have col­lat­er­al con­se­quences that place pub­lic health at risk, accord­ing to briefs filed in the U.S. Supreme Court on July 23, 2018 by pub­lic health experts and an asso­ci­a­tion rep­re­sent­ing gener­ic drug man­u­fac­tur­ers. In ami­cus (or friend-of-the-court) briefs filed in con­nec­tion with a chal­lenge brought by death-row pris­on­er Russell Bucklew (pic­tured) to Missouris use of lethal injec­tion, the Association for Accessible Medicines (AAM) — a pro­fes­sion­al asso­ci­a­tion rep­re­sent­ing gener­ic and biosim­i­lar drug man­u­fac­tur­ers and dis­trib­u­tors — and eigh­teen phar­ma­cy, med­i­cine, and health pol­i­cy experts warn that ques­tion­able state prac­tices in…

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News

Nov 08, 2023

Utah Judge Hears Argument in Prisoners’ Lawsuit Against Execution Protocol

On October 26, 2023, Judge Coral Sanchez of Utah’s Third Circuit Court heard argu­ments in a law­suit filed by five death-sen­tenced pris­on­ers against the State in April. Ralph Menzies, Troy Kell, Michael Archuleta, Douglas Carter, and Taberon Honie seek an order vacat­ing Utah’s cur­rent exe­cu­tion pro­to­col and enjoin­ing its use. The law­suit argues that the State’s two-pronged pro­to­col, with lethal injec­tion as the default method of exe­cu­tion and fir­ing squad as a back­up, con­sti­tutes cru­el and unusu­al pun­ish­ment in both meth­ods and is there­fore uncon­sti­tu­tion­al under the Eighth Amendment. At…

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News

Sep 21, 2023

South Carolina Ready to Resume Executions by Lethal Injection After Acquiring Drugs

On September 19th, 2023, South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster and the South Carolina Department of Corrections issued a joint state­ment inform­ing the pub­lic that the state is now pre­pared” to car­ry out lethal injec­tion exe­cu­tions, as they have retained the drug need­ed to do so. Gov. McMaster and Department of Corrections offi­cials filed a brief with the South Carolina Supreme Court, noti­fy­ing the courts of their pro­cure­ment of pen­to­bar­bi­tal, a seda­tive that can be lethal in high dos­es, and ask­ing for a resump­tion of exe­cu­tions. In his press release, Gov.…

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News

Sep 15, 2023

Some Medical Supply Manufacturers Ban Use of IV Equipment in Lethal Injection Executions

According to a September 14, 2023, arti­cle from The Intercept, four med­ical sup­ply man­u­fac­tur­ers are refus­ing to sell their equip­ment for use in lethal injec­tion exe­cu­tions. This lim­i­ta­tion may fur­ther ham­per the abil­i­ty of states to car­ry out exe­cu­tions, as a mul­ti­tude of phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal com­pa­nies have already placed restric­tions on sell­ing their drugs to depart­ments of cor­rec­tion. Joining these com­pa­nies are Baxter International Inc., B. Braun Medical Inc., Fresenius Kabi, and Johnson & Johnson. Not only do these com­pa­nies pro­duce the drugs need­ed for lethal injec­tion, but they also develop…

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Five vials of clear liquid, varying sizes. One is on its side with a syringe in it.

News

Aug 17, 2023

Death-Sentenced Prisoner Aubrey Trail Waives Appeals and Petitions Nebraska for Execution Date Despite Unavailability of Lethal Injection Drugs

On August 8, 2023, death-sen­tenced pris­on­er Aubrey Trail peti­tioned the state to set his exe­cu­tion date. Currently, there are 10 oth­ers on death row in Nebraska, but the state does not pos­sess the nec­es­sary lethal injec­tion drugs for any exe­cu­tions. Nebraska has not exe­cut­ed any­one in more than five years. The last per­son exe­cut­ed was Carey Dean Moore in 2018 via lethal injec­tion. Mr. Trail con­fessed to the 2017 killing of Sydney Loofe and was sen­tenced to death by a three-judge pan­el in 2021. In a let­ter to the Lincoln Star…

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News

Jul 27, 2023

Alabama executes James Barber as SCOTUS denies a stay

On July 21, 2023, Alabama death row pris­on­er James Barber was exe­cut­ed two hours after the U.S. Supreme Court denied his motion for a stay in a 6 – 3 deci­sion. This marks the state’s first exe­cu­tion since a series of three botched exe­cu­tions in 2022 and an inter­nal inves­ti­ga­tion into the Alabama Department of Corrections’ (ADOC) exe­cu­tion protocol. 

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News

Jul 18, 2023

Ohio Joins Fifteen Other States Without an Execution in 5 Years

Today marks the five-year anniver­sary of Ohio’s last exe­cu­tion, which took place on July 18, 2018. Ohio now joins 15 oth­er states with­out an exe­cu­tion in the past five years. Although there is no for­mal mora­to­ri­um, Governor Mike DeWine has issued sev­er­al reprieves due to con­cerns about the lethal injec­tion pro­to­col and the dif­fi­cul­ty the state has had obtain­ing lethal injec­tion drugs. Ohio has exe­cut­ed 56 peo­ple in the mod­ern death penal­ty era, plac­ing it 8th over­all in the num­ber of exe­cu­tions in the United States. 

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News

May 08, 2023

Family Sues Alabama Over Longest Known Execution in U.S. History’

On May 3, 2023, the fam­i­ly of Joe Nathan James (pic­tured) sued the state of Alabama for the pain and suf­fer­ing it caused dur­ing his three-hour-long lethal injec­tion in 2022. It is believed to be the longest known exe­cu­tion in U.S. his­to­ry. The suit asserts that the exe­cu­tion team failed to exe­cute Mr. James in a man­ner that com­ports with the U.S. Constitution, the Alabama Constitution, and applic­a­ble state law.”

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News

May 02, 2023

As Tennessee Legislature Ends, Two Death-Penalty Bills Fail and One Passes

Bills to alter the state’s method of exe­cu­tion and to make the exe­cu­tion process more trans­par­ent failed in Tennessee’s leg­is­la­ture this year as its ses­sion con­clud­ed. In an effort to facil­i­tate exe­cu­tions bogged down by the state’s prob­lems with lethal injec­tion, a bill was pro­posed to give pris­on­ers the option of the fir­ing squad for their exe­cu­tion. Following an inde­pen­dent inves­ti­ga­tion into Tennessee’s lethal injec­tion pro­to­cols, Governor Bill Lee ® had sus­pend­ed exe­cu­tions on January 52023.

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News

Apr 28, 2023

South Carolina Advances Legislation to Keep Execution Details Secret

Bills to hide the iden­ti­ties of lethal-injec­tion drug sup­pli­ers and exe­cu­tion team mem­bers from the pub­lic have passed both cham­bers of the South Carolina leg­is­la­ture. The bills face a rec­on­cil­i­a­tion process before one can move to the governor’s desk for sig­na­ture. Proponents of the law say it is nec­es­sary because reveal­ing such infor­ma­tion might make exe­cu­tions dif­fi­cult or impos­si­ble. South Carolina has not car­ried out an exe­cu­tion in 12 years. Opponents say the pub­lic has the right to know about gov­ern­ment actions.

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News

Feb 13, 2023

Local Church Leaders Across Alabama Speak Out About State’s Death Penalty Process

In a let­ter to Governor Kay Ivey (pic­tured) of Alabama, over 170 local faith lead­ers from many denom­i­na­tions and tra­di­tions across the state asked her to com­mit to a com­pre­hen­sive, inde­pen­dent, and exter­nal review of Alabama’s death penal­ty pro­ce­dures” in the wake of a series of botched exe­cu­tions. The church rep­re­sen­ta­tives thanked the gov­er­nor for paus­ing exe­cu­tions but urged her to ensure trans­paren­cy and inde­pen­dence in review­ing how Alabama per­forms executions.

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