Before lethal injection, the most common method of killing criminals was the electric chair, which today is regarded as torture.
Lethal injection has been seen as a humane and technologically advanced punishment without blood. Back in 2005, when there were many executions by injection, researchers looked at records of executions in Texas and Virginia and found that 44% of inmates knew they were going to die and were probably in excruciating pain. They couldn't scream because the toxic cocktail caused muscle paralysis.
Several executions were thwarted
One of the drugs that was supposed to stop the heart did not work, which suggests that the killing mechanism was based on suffocation. This is a terrible scenario.
The persistent shortage of drugs prompts some states to experiment with alternatives. As a result, several executions went wrong. One person reportedly suffocated for two hours before he died.
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Is there a more humane option?
For thousands of years, execution has been a spectacle to be seen by the public. There seemed to be no shortage of creative ideas and little morality from the performers.
For example, in ancient Persia there was the punishment of schapism, in which the victim was sandwiched between two boats, which were covered with milk and honey. The man was eaten by pests.
Meanwhile, one traveler who visited Delhi, India in the 14th century, reported that elephants were trained to cut prisoners into pieces using blades attached to their fangs.
Guillotine
Joseph-Ignaz Guillotin is a physician who decided that executions should be carried out more humanely. The apparatus, which was not actually invented by him, had a blade suspended in a wooden frame above a person. Some devices were supplemented with a head basket.
Is this method humane? A 1975 study reported that signs of consciousness persisted for 18 seconds in animals after they were decapitated.
Hanging
Decapitation continues to be practiced, especially in Saudi Arabia. But today the most common method of execution is hanging.
This is done in two ways: "short fall" and "long fall". The first involves the fall of a person from a lower height and results in death by suffocation. Usually this method is considered extremely painful.
A "long fall" is considered more humane. The rope breaks the second bone in the victim's neck. The victim usually loses consciousness immediately.
Firing squad
In a typical setting, the offender is tied to a chair with a hood over his head. Then five anonymous shooters shoot the man.
In 1938, Utah used this method to kill a 40-year-old man, John Deering, who was convicted of murder. He made the unusual decision to connect to an electrocardiogram, which would give an idea of how quickly the execution works.
The monitor showed that Deering's heart stopped beating 15 seconds after the shot. It is impossible to understand how long he suffered.
Electric chair
The electric chair was invented as a humane alternative to hanging. One of its creators, a dentist, recalled the story of a drunk man who touched an electric generator a few years ago and died instantly. He came up with the idea of an electric chair. The euphoria did not last long, as it became clear that the execution brought torment.
Nitrogen hypoxia
Nitrogen hypoxia involves replacing air with an inert gas such as nitrogen or helium. One study from the 1960s showed that volunteers breathing pure nitrogen lost consciousness after about 17-20 seconds.
The American Veterinary Medical Association states that nitrogen hypoxia is not suitable for veterinary euthanasia. The killing is not happening as quickly as announced. Cats and dogs know they are dead before they faint, and it takes at least seven minutes to kill a pig.
If a prisoner is holding his breath or his breathing is too shallow, it may take longer to kill him. In all likelihood, the victim will need to be anesthetized first. This goes back to the problems with lethal injection: no pharmaceutical company wants its drugs to be used to kill people.
The key problem facing the United States is that the country does not want the horrific outcome of the death penalty. Justice wants the prisoner to be executed, but not brutally. This creates contradictions.
Author: Maya Muzashvili