LETHAL INJECTION VS ELECTRIC CHAIR

LETHAL INJECTION VS ELECTRIC CHAIR

ILE Legal Blog

8 Apr, 2023

LETHAL INJECTION VS ELECTRIC CHAIR

Author – A Janani, student at The Tamil Nadu Dr. Ambedkar law University

Abstract

            Generally we know that the punishment are given for the crime as well as a fine too and some times both. For some heinous crimes the accused are rewarded with capital punishment. But this Capital punishment or death sentence are given to most of the rarest of rare cases. Such punishment vary from country to country. Sentencing to death is a contradictory till date, because many jurists advocate to abolish death penalty. Any way capital punishment are awarded to inmates who did heinous crime. Capital punishment is mentioned as one of the punishment and high degree of punishment in various provisions of the Indian Penal code. As country  varies form their punishment, they have different methods to execute a death of a person. Let’s we see about the two methods of capital punishment (i.e.,) lethal injection and the electric chair of execution.

lethal injection

             A method of executing denounce prisoners through the administration of one or more chemicals or drugs that induce death. In other words lethal injection means injecting more than one injection which contains chemicals, drugs, of over dosage that leads to the death of the prisoners. Now a days  Lethal injection is most widely used method of execution in the United States. The U.S state of Oklahoma was the first to adopt lethal injection as a capital punishment for the prisoners in 1977 because as it is considered as more cheaper and humane than other punishment such as electrocution, gas chamber, etc., Texas was the first state to conduct lethal injection to Charles Brooks, Jr.,  On 2nd December of 1982. By the early 21st century, lethal injection was the one and only method  of execution in most  of the U. S states where capital punishment was legal and it was an option for the prisoners in respect of all states. This method (i.e.,) Lethal injection is also used and executed by the U.S federal government and the U.S military.

History of Lethal Injection

                  J. Mount Bleyer, M.D. from New York, introduced a plan to inject Prisoners  with a high dosage of morphine. Blount claimed that  this was more humane than a hanging to complete the capital punishment. The prisons in New York decided to use the electric chair for execution of inmates  instead of Bleyer’s  injection technique.

Procedure

               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.
  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. Three drugs are used in lethal injection. Pancuronium bromide (Pavulon) is used to cause muscle paralysis and respiratory arrest, potassium chloride to stop the heart, and midazolam for sedation.

List of persons executed by lethal injection

  • In December 7, 1982 – Charles Brooks becomes the first person executed by lethal injection.
  • Mark James Asay was the first person executed by lethal injection using the drug etomidate.
  • Terry Melvin Sims was the first person executed by lethal injection in Florida.
  • Giuseppe Girotti, a Catholic priest, was executed by the Nazis with an injection of gasoline.
  • Andrée Borrel, a member of Britain’s Special Operations Executive, was executed by the Nazis with an injection of phenol.
  • February 17, 2022: Oklahoma executed Gilbert Ray Postelle(link is external). He was 35 years old. He was killed with a lethal injection at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester, and prison officials declared him dead at 10:14 a.m.
  • May 11, 2022: Arizona executed Clarence Wayne Dixon, after a nearly eight-year hiatus in the state’s use of the death penalty brought on by difficulty state officials faced in finding lethal injection drugs.
  • July 28, 2022: Alabama executed Joe Nathan James, Jr. (link is external)He was 50 years old. Officials took three hours to set an IV line before putting James to death. The Death Penalty Information Center called it “the longest botched lethal injection execution in U.S. history.”
  • October 20, 2022: Oklahoma executed by lethal injection Benjamin Cole

Electrocution

              Electrocution is a type of death by electric shock passing through out the body.In other words, electrocution is an injury or death caused by  electric shock passing from current through the body. The term or word  “electrocution“ was coined in 1889 in the US. An electric chair is a device used to put to death an individual by electrocution. The electric chair has been used in United States and  in Philippines used for several decades. While death was originally theorized to result from damage to the brain, it was shown in 1899 that it primarily results from ventricular fibrillation and eventual cardiac arrest.[1] The electric chair has been used as a symbol of the death penalty in the United states. The use of electrocution has been declined or decreased due to the rise of lethal injection, which is believed as a more humane method of execution (put to Death). Still some states use this method as a legal method of execution, but today it is used as secondary method over a lethal injection. As of 2021, electrocution is an optional form of execution in the states of Alabama and Florida, both of which allow the prisoner to choose lethal injection as an alternative method. New York built the first electric chair in 1888 and executed William Kemmler in 1890. Soon, other states adopted this execution method. In 1899 Martha Place became the first woman to be electrocuted.

Procedure

               The person is usually shaved and strapped to a chair with belts that cross his chest, groin, legs, and arms. A metal skullcap-shaped electrode is attached to the scalp and forehead over a sponge moistened with saline. The sponge must not be too wet or the saline short-circuits the electric current, and not too dry, as it would then have a very high resistance. An additional electrode is moistened with conductive jelly (Electro-Crème) and attached to a portion of the prisoner’s leg that has been shaved to reduce resistance to electricity. The prisoner is then blindfolded.

 U.S. Supreme Court Justice William Brennan once offered the following description of an execution by electric chair:

…the prisoner’s eyeballs sometimes pop out and rest on [his] cheeks. The prisoner often defecates, urinates, and vomits blood and drool. The body turns bright red as its temperature rises, and the prisoner’s flesh swells and his skin stretches to the point of breaking. Sometimes the prisoner catches fire….Witnesses hear a loud and sustained sound like bacon frying, and the sickly sweet smell of burning flesh permeates the chamber.[2]

Conclusion

           The punishment are pre determined for certain crimes and heinous crimes. As said earlier the punishment varies form county to country though still capital punishment exits in some countries such as lethal injection, gas chamber, electric chair execution, firing squad, hanging. China is the world’s most active death penalty country. There 91 countries are imposed by capital punishment by law but eight countries implements or apply the death penalty for certain crimes such as murder, war, etc., However, in India the capital punishment are given in a rare of rarest cases but they use only two methods for execution (i.e.,) hanging and shooting (encounter) It is legal in the case of serious crime but sometimes innocent are convicted as a accused.

Key words

Lethal injection – putting a person to death by more drugs with over dosage.

Electrocution – causing death of a person by passing electric shock.

Heinous – very serious.

Inmates – prisoners or accused persons.

Innocent – being hurt or killed in a crime although he is not involved in it.

References

  • Bibliography

Death penalty by Dr. Janak Raj Jai ( advocate, supreme court of India), published by Regency publications.

  • Webliography

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrocution

https://study.com/academy/lesson/lethal-injection-definition-history-procedure.html

https://www.fd.org/news/every-person-death-row-executed-us-2022#:~:text=July%2028%2C%202022%3A%20Alabama%20executed,injection%20execution%20in%20U.S.%20history.%22

https://www.britannica.com/topic/lethal-injection

https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/executions/methods-of-execution/description-of-each-method

https://www.britannica.com/topic/electrocution

[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_chair

2 https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/executions/methods-of-execution/description-of-each-method