Overview
The primary means of execution in the U.S. have been hanging, electrocution, the gas chamber, firing squad, and lethal injection. The Supreme Court has never found a method of execution to be unconstitutional, though some methods have been declared unconstitutional by state courts. The predominance of lethal injection as the preferred means of execution in all states in the modern era may have put off any judgment by the Court regarding older methods.
Because of a resistance by drug manufacturers to provide the drugs typically used in lethal injections, some states now allow the use of alternative methods if lethal injection cannot be performed. Controversies surrounding the method to be used have delayed executions in many states, contributing to an overall decline in the use of the death penalty.
Authorized Methods
NOTE: [Brackets] around a state indicate that the state authorizes the listed method as an alternative method if other methods are found to be unconstitutional or are unavailable/impractical. Click on the state to obtain specific information about the methods authorized.
Method | # of executions by method since 1976 | # of states authorizing method | Jurisdictions that Authorize |
---|---|---|---|
Lethal Injection | 1396 | 28 states+ and U.S. Military and U.S. Gov’t In South Carolina, lethal injection may be elected as an alternative method, if available. +includes 1 state that no longer have an active death penalty | Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire*, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, [South Carolina], South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Wyoming, U.S. Military, U.S. Government *New Hampshire abolished the death penalty but the repeal may not apply retroactively, leaving a prisoner on death row facing possible execution. To find the drug protocols used by states, see State-by-State Lethal Injection. |
Electrocution | 163 | 8 states (in South Carolina, electrocution is the primary method; the other 7 have lethal injection as primary method). | [Alabama], [Arkansas], Florida, Kentucky, [Mississippi], [Oklahoma], South Carolina, [Tennessee] The supreme courts of Georgia (2001) and Nebraska (2008) have ruled that the use of the electric chair violates their state constitutional prohibitions against cruel and unusual punishment. Virginia had authorized the electric chair as a method of execution in some cases, but it repealed the death penalty in March 2021. |
Lethal Gas | 11 | 9 states (all have lethal injection as primary method) | [Alabama], Arizona, California, [Florida], [Mississippi], Missouri, [Oklahoma], [Tennesse], [Wyoming] |
Hanging | 3 | 1 state (has lethal injection as primary method, abolished death penalty prospectively) | [New Hampshire]* *New Hampshire abolished the death penalty but the repeal may not apply retroactively, leaving a prisoner on death row facing possible execution. |
Firing Squad | 3 | 5 states (in South Carolina, electrocution is the primary method; the other states have lethal injection as primary method) | [Mississippi], [Oklahoma], [Utah], [South Carolina], [Idaho] |
News & Developments
News
Aug 28, 2023
Alabama Attorney General Seeks Execution with Unprecedented, Untested Method Using Nitrogen Hypoxia
On August 25, 2023, Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall asked the state Supreme Court to set a date for Kenneth Smith to be executed using nitrogen hypoxia, a method that has never been used in any state. The decision to use this method comes after Alabama botched several executions. Since 2018, when Alabama initially authorized the use of nitrogen hypoxia in capital punishment, the state has been working to establish a protocol for executions using this method. Alabama initially authorized nitrogen hypoxia amidst a shortage of lethal injection drugs. Oklahoma…
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Aug 24, 2023
Law Reviews: The Capital Shadow Docket and the Death of Judicial Restraint
A recent law review article criticizes the U.S. Supreme Court’s use of its ‘shadow docket’ in capital cases, particularly in recent years. The Capital Shadow Docket and the Death of Judicial Restraint, by Professor Jenny-Brooke Condon, explains that the Court “invokes judicial restraint to justify its refusal to second-guess the cruelty of challenged execution methods or when Justices cite federalism-based rationales for refusing to delay state enforcement of a death sentences … And yet on the Supreme Court’s shadow docket, the Court’s death penalty jurisprudence is anything but restrained.”
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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 5, 2023.
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Apr 27, 2023
New Podcast: Discussion with Ron McAndrew, Former Florida Warden Who Presided Over Executions
In the latest episode of Discussions with DPIC, Anne Holsinger, Managing Director of DPIC, interviews Ron McAndrew (pictured), a former Florida Prison Warden who witnessed executions using electrocution and lethal injection in Florida and Texas. He offers reflections on the negative impact that executions have on the families of both the victim and the condemned, the correctional officers, and on himself.
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Mar 28, 2023
Idaho Steps Closer to Using the Firing Squad for Executions
Idaho will become the fifth state to authorize the firing squad as a method of execution and may become the first state to mandatorily impose it on a death row prisoner since 1976. Idaho’s Governor Brad Little signed HB 186 into law on March 24, 2023, and it goes into effect on July 1. The law gives the director of the Idaho Department of Correction up to five days after a death warrant is issued to determine if lethal injection is available. If it is declared unavailable, the execution will…
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Feb 09, 2023
South Carolina Supreme Court Blocks Efforts to Conceal Lethal Injection Information
On January 26, South Carolina’s Supreme Court ordered the state to turn over information about its attempts to obtain lethal injection drugs, as part of a suit challenging aspects of the state’s methods of execution.
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Oct 11, 2022
South Carolina Supreme Court to Hear Argument One Month Sooner on Constitutionality of Electric Chair and Firing Squad
The South Carolina Supreme Court will hear argument one month sooner on the state’s appeal of a trial court ruling that declared two of its statutorily methods of execution — death by electric chair and firing squad — unconstitutional.
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Sep 21, 2022
Alabama Federal Court Issues Injunction Halting Execution of Alan Miller
A federal district court issued an order on September 19, 2022 to halt the scheduled September 22, 2022 execution of Alabama death-row prisoner Alan Miller “by any method other than nitrogen hypoxia,” leading to a series of last-minute appeals by Alabama prosecutors and an after-hours execution-night ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court to let the execution go forward. Alabama subsequently called off the execution when it became apparent more than two hours later that execution personnel would be unable to successfully set an IV line before the midnight expiration of Miller’s…
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Sep 15, 2022
Alabama Prosecutors Float, Then Retreat From, Plan to Execute Alan Miller Using Untested Nitrogen Suffocation Procedure
Alabama prosecutors have told a federal judge that the state will not execute death-row prisoner Alan Miller by nitrogen hypoxia on September 22, 2022, three days after suggesting there was a “very good chance” it would be ready to attempt the first-ever execution by that method.
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Sep 09, 2022
South Carolina Trial Court Rules in Favor of Death-Row Prisoners Challenging Execution Methods
A South Carolina trial court has issued an injunction preventing the state from carrying out executions using a firing squad or the electric chair, ruling that those methods violate the state’s constitutional prohibition against “cruel, unusual, and corporal punishments.”
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Aug 18, 2022
South Carolina Court Set to Rule on Prisoners’ Challenge to Electric Chair and Firing Squad Executions After Completion of Methods of Execution Trial
A decision on the constitutionality of South Carolina’s newly adopted execution methods now rests in the hands a trial court judge after lawyers for death-row prisoners and the South Carolina Department of Corrections (SCDC) presented four days of conflicting expert testimony about the amount of pain suffered during firing squad and electric chair executions.
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