Only a Civilized Country Knows How to Kill Legally

18 States and the District of Columbia do not have the death penalty, and 30 States have not carried out an execution in the last 5 years while 150 inmates have been freed from death row because new DNA results proved conclusively that they were innocent.

Lethal injection is the practice of injecting a person with a fatal dose of drugs (typically a barbiturate, paralytic, and potassium solution) for the express purpose of causing immediate death. The main application for this procedure is capital punishment, but the term may also be applied in a broad sense to euthanasia and suicide. It kills the person by first putting the person to sleep, and then stopping the breathing and heart, in that order.

Procedure in U.S. For Executions

The condemned person is strapped onto a gurney; two intravenous cannulae ("IVs") are inserted, one in each arm. Only one is necessary to carry out the execution; the other is reserved as a backup in the event the primary line fails. A line leading from the IV line in an adjacent room is attached to the prisoner's IV, and secured so the line does not snap during the injections.



The arm of the condemned person is swabbed with alcohol before the cannula is inserted. The needles and equipment used are sterilized. There have been questions about why these precautions against infection are performed despite the purpose of the injection being death.



There are several explanations: cannulae are sterilized during manufacture, so using sterile ones is routine medical procedure. Secondly, there is a chance that the prisoner could receive a stay of execution after the cannulae have been inserted, as happened in the case of James Autry in October 1983 (he was eventually executed on March 14, 1984). Finally, it would be a hazard to prison personnel to use unsterilized equipment.



Following connection of the lines, saline drips are started in both arms. This, too, is standard medical procedure: it must be ascertained that the IV lines are not blocked, ensuring the chemicals have not precipitated in the IV lines and blocked the needle, preventing the drugs from reaching the subject. A heart monitor is attached so prison officials can determine when death has occurred.



In most states, the intravenous injection is a series of drugs given in a set sequence, designed to first induce unconsciousness followed by death through paralysis of respiratory muscles and/or by cardiac arrest through depolarization of cardiac muscle cells. The execution of the condemned in most states involves three separate injections (in sequential order):

1. Sodium thiopental or pentobarbital: ultra-short action barbiturate, an anesthetic agent used at a high dose that renders the prisoner unconscious in less than 30 seconds. Depression of respiratory activity is one of the characteristic actions of this drug. Consequently, the lethal-injection doses, as described in the Sodium Thiopental section below, will — even in the absence of the following two drugs — cause death due to lack of breathing, as happens with overdoses of opioids.
2. Pancuronium bromide: non-depolarizing muscle relaxant, causes complete, fast and sustained paralysis of the skeletal striated muscles, including the diaphragm and the rest of the respiratory muscles; this would eventually cause death by asphyxiation.
3. Potassium chloride: stops the heart, and thus causes death by cardiac arrest.

The drugs are not mixed externally as that can cause them to precipitate. Also, a sequential injection is key to achieve the desired effects in the appropriate order: administration of the pentobarbital essentially renders the person unconscious; the infusion of the pancuronium bromide induces complete paralysis, including that of the lungs and diaphragm rendering the person unable to breathe.



If the person being executed were not already completely unconscious, the injection of a highly concentrated solution of potassium chloride could cause severe pain at the site of the IV line as well as along the punctured vein, but it interrupts the electrical activity of the heart muscle and causes it to stop beating, bringing about the death of the person being executed.



The intravenous tubing leads to a room next to the execution chamber, usually separated from the condemned by a curtain or wall.



Typically a prison employee trained in venipuncture inserts the needle, while a second prison employee orders, prepares and loads the drugs into the lethal injection syringes. Two other staff members take each of the three syringes and secure them into the IVs. After the curtain is opened to allow the witnesses to see inside the chamber, the condemned person is then permitted to make a final statement.



Following this, the warden will signal that the execution may commence, and the executioner(s) (either prison staff or private citizens depending on the jurisdiction) will then manually inject the three drugs in sequence. During the execution, the condemned's cardiac rhythm is monitored. Death is pronounced after cardiac activity stops.



Death usually occurs within seven minutes, although the whole procedure can take up to two hours, as was the case with the execution of Christopher Newton on May 24, 2007.



According to state law, if a physician's participation in the execution is prohibited for reasons of medical ethics, then the death ruling can be made by the state Medical Examiner's Office. After confirmation that death has occurred, a coroner signs the condemned's death certificate.

Since the death penalty was reauthorized in 1976, 1,386 people have been executed, almost exclusively by the states, with most occurring after 1990. Texas has accounted for over one-third of modern executions and over four times as many as Oklahoma, the state with the second-highest number.

From 1973 until 2004 – 7,482 people have been sentenced to death with 4.1% of that total being released because they were innocent; however, of the remaining death row inmates:

• 36.1% of those eventually receiving a reduced sentence
• 45% are still on death row,
• 13% executed
• 1% died by other means

But, there is always this lingering question and there will always be 2 sides to this lingering question and there will always be those who will straddle the fence regarding this lingering question, which is:

Should America Use Capital Punishment to Deter Violent Crimes?

In a little over 30 years almost 7500 have been sentenced to death and the violent crime rate has reduced substantially in the US from 1993 through 2012... but, can we attribute this to people being placed on death row or on the 13% that have actually been executed?

And, how do you feel about the 4.1% that were released from prison because they were innocent? What if we had killed them too? Oopps... sorry about that...

And, would you like to know if you could, how many were put to death already that may have been innocent as well?

Why not send some of these death row inmates into war zones and fire fights and let them die for their country... of course, that might be against their Constitutional Rights. Or, let them be used by the medical community on which to test drugs... Constitutional Rights, I would suspect again.

So, what is a country to do, just execute these people because we can?