Methods of Execution

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.

DPI Report: Behind the Curtain

DPI Report: Behind the Curtain

Secrecy and the Death Penalty in the United States

DPI Page: Lethal Injection at the U.S. Supreme Court

DPI Page: Lethal Injection at the U.S. Supreme Court

Overview 

All death penal­ty states, the mil­i­tary, and the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment autho­rize lethal injec­tion as a method of exe­cu­tion. Jurisdictions use a vari­ety of exe­cu­tion pro­to­cols using one or more drugs. Most three-drug pro­to­cols use an anes­thet­ic or seda­tive, fol­lowed by a drug to par­a­lyze the pris­on­er, and final­ly a drug to stop the heart. One and two-drug pro­to­cols typ­i­cal­ly use an over­dose of an anes­thet­ic or seda­tive, such as pen­to­bar­bi­tal, to cause death.

Although the con­sti­tu­tion­al­i­ty of lethal injec­tion has been upheld by the United States Supreme Court, many of the spe­cif­ic appli­ca­tions are being legal­ly chal­lenged. Because it is increas­ing­ly dif­fi­cult to obtain legal­ly the drugs com­mon­ly used in exe­cu­tions, some states have exper­i­ment­ed with new drugs and dif­fer­ent drug com­bi­na­tions to car­ry out exe­cu­tions, result­ing in pro­longed exe­cu­tions in which pris­on­ers exhib­it­ed symp­toms of pain and dis­tress. The dif­fi­cul­ty obtain­ing drugs for lethal injec­tion has also dri­ven up the costs. 

Even though the issues sur­round­ing lethal injec­tion are far from set­tled, some states have attempt­ed to cut off debate by con­ceal­ing their exe­cu­tion prac­tices under veils of secre­cy. Laws passed over the past decade explic­it­ly pre­vent the pub­lic from learn­ing the prove­nance of lethal drugs, mak­ing it impos­si­ble to assess their reli­a­bil­i­ty and efficacy.

DPI has com­piled sum­maries of avail­able infor­ma­tion regard­ing the meth­ods of exe­cu­tion cur­rent­ly autho­rized and the drugs used in exe­cu­tions over the past ten years. DPI’s report, Behind the Curtain 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

Feb 23, 2026

Twenty Years Since the Last Scheduled Execution in California and a Focus on the Participation of Physicians in Executions

February 21, 2006, a California court’s deci­sion effec­tive­ly halt­ed the planned exe­cu­tion of Michael Angelo Morales, mark­ing the start of California’s 20-year mora­to­ri­um on exe­cu­tion sched­ul­ing and throw­ing into the spot­light the ten­sion between physi­cian par­tic­i­pa­tion in exe­cu­tions and their pledge to show​“the utmost respect for life.” > The events sur­round­ing Morales’s impend­ing fate brought to the sur­face the long-run­n­ing schism between law and medicine,…

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News

Feb 04, 2026

Bipartisan Support Defeats Indiana House Bill to Add Firing Squad as Execution Method

A bipar­ti­san group of 19 Republicans and 28 Democrats nar­row­ly defeat­ed a mea­sure to add the fir­ing squad as an exe­cu­tion method in an Indiana House floor vote on January 28, 2026. HB 1119 received 48 in favor and 47 against, falling three votes short of pas­sage, with two leg­is­la­tors not vot­ing and three absent. Although the mea­sure could have been brought for a sec­ond vote before February 2, it was not. A sim­i­lar Senate bill (SB 11) to add the fir­ing squad stalled in…

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News

Jan 27, 2026

Death-Sentenced Prisoner Christa Pike Files Religious Challenge to Tennessee’s Execution Protocol

Christa Pike, the only woman on Tennessee’s death row, has filed a law­suit in the Davidson County Chancery Court chal­leng­ing the state’s lethal injec­tion pro­to­col, assert­ing it vio­lates her con­sti­tu­tion­al rights and con­flicts with her reli­gious beliefs. The state’s new exe­cu­tion pro­to­col relies sole­ly on pen­to­bar­bi­tal to induce res­pi­ra­to­ry and car­diac arrest, rather than the for­mer three-drug cock­tail. Ms. Pike argues that Tennessee’s lim­i­ta­tion on clergy,…

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News

Jan 21, 2026

New Autopsy Report Renews Concerns about Arizona’s Execution Protocol

An autop­sy of Richard Djerf, who was exe­cut­ed in Arizona in October 2025, has renewed con­cerns about the state’s lethal injec­tion exe­cu­tion pro­to­col and the state’s efforts to address long­stand­ing exe­cu­­tion-relat­ed con­cerns. Mr. Djerf was con­vict­ed for the September 1993 mur­ders of four mem­bers of the Luna fam­i­ly in Phoenix. The autop­sy, con­duct­ed by Pinal County Chief Medical Examiner Dr. John Hu, estab­lished for the first time that med­ical personnel encountered…

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News

Dec 09, 2025

Roundup of 2025 Legislation to Modify Execution Protocols 

On December 15, 2025, the Death Penalty Information Center will release its annu­al Year End Report detail­ing nation­wide death penal­ty trends, includ­ing exe­cu­tions, new death sen­tences, leg­is­la­tion, pub­lic opin­ion, and the legal chal­lenges in the Supreme Court. This arti­cle high­lights the leg­is­la­tion intro­duced this year to mod­i­fy execution protocols. This year, leg­is­la­tors in more than half of states that retain the death penal­ty pro­posed changes to their…

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