Lethal injection, method of executing condemned prisoners through the administration of one or more chemicals that induce death.
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Lethal injection—now the most widely used method of execution in the United States—was first adopted by the U.S. state of Oklahoma in 1977, because it was considered cheaper and more humane than either electrocution or lethal gas (see gas chamber). Texas was the first state to administer lethal injection, executing Charles Brooks, Jr., on December 2, 1982.
By the early 21st century, lethal injection was the sole method of execution in most U.S. states where capital punishment was legal, and it was an option for prisoners in all states. The method is also used by the U.S. federal government and the U.S. military. From 1976 (when the U.S. Supreme Court ended its moratorium on the death penalty) to the second decade of the 21st century, lethal injection was administered in some 1,100 executions.
During a lethal-injection procedure, a prisoner is strapped to a gurney, a padded stretcher normally used for transporting hospital patients. Until late in the first decade of the 21st century, the typical lethal injection consisted of three chemicals injected into a viable part of the prisoner’s body (usually an arm) in the following order: (1) sodium thiopental, a barbiturate anesthetic, which is supposed to induce deep unconsciousness in about 20 seconds, (2) pancuronium bromide, a total muscle relaxant that, given in sufficient dosages, paralyzes all voluntary muscles, thereby causing suffocation, and (3) potassium chloride, which induces irreversible cardiac arrest.
If all goes as planned, the entire execution takes about five minutes, with death usually occurring less than two minutes after the final injection. However, botched lethal injections have sometimes required more than two hours to achieve death. In 2009 the attempted execution of Romell Broom in Ohio was halted before any drugs had been injected; after continual probing with hypodermic needles, executioners were unable to find a usable vein. It was the first lethal injection—and only the second execution—in the United States to have been halted in progress.