Who Kills and How? Execution Methods, Protocols, and Botched Executions
Laura L. Finley · 2024
Given that the methods of execution used historically were tremendously barbaric, it could be easy to believe that today’s methods are “humane.” A humane execution is an oxymoron. None of the methods currently being used are painless. The state knows this and yet pretends as though they are. In fact, the Supreme Court has actually ruled that there is no constitutional right to a painless execution, thereby acknowledging that executions are indeed painful, if not torturous. The failure to eliminate the death penalty because it causes emotional and physical pain is a choice by the state that flies in the face of international human rights treaties and guidelines. This chapter reviews the methods of execution that are still in use in the US, documenting the problems with each as well as the Court’s decisions about them. Further, the chapter addresses execution protocols that are wildly inappropriate and that, coupled with the methods used, result in deep pain, if not torture during executions. The chapter makes clear throughout that the state is fully aware of these problems and chooses to conduct executions despite them, a social harm that is a state crime.