Chapter 4: Methods of Execution

Execution of criminals has been used by nearly all societies to punish crime. Human beings have been quite creative to come up with several different methods of putting people to death. Deterrence was the most important goal of the death penalty during the colonial period. Colonial Americans sometimes employed “enhancements” to an execution in order to increase deterrence. The “gibbet” was one of those enhancements. They would enclose the copse in a “gibbet” and hang it in a public place, subjecting it to the insects and birds. People would pass the hanging corpse and actually watch it decompose. Sometimes they would cut body parts into quarters and display them in different parts of the country.

For about 120 years the Supreme Court employed a fixed or historical meaning of the concept of cruel and unusual punishment. The Court interpreted the concept’s meaning and used at the time that the Eights Amendment was adopted in 1791. As a result, only the most barbarous punishments and tortures were prohibited.

In 1910, in the case of Weems v. United States, the Court abandoned its historical or fixed interpretation of cruel and unusual punishment and created a new one. Weems was an officer in Philippines convicted of making two false accounting entries. He was fined and sentenced for 15 years of hard labor and he had to wear chains on his ankles and wrists. Weems argued that his punishment was cruel and unusual to his crime.

The Court agreed with Weems and broke with rule, holding “that (1) the meaning of the Eighth Amendment is no restricted to the intent of the Framers, (2) that the Eights Amendment bars punishments that are excessive, and (3) that what is excessive is not fixed in time but changes with evolving social conditions.” However, Supreme Court has never declared an execution method cruel and unusual punishment.

According to the U.S Supreme Court long stays on death row doesn’t constitute cruel and unusual punishment. Supreme Court also has ruled that it is not cruel and unusual punishment to execute elderly and infirm death row inmates.

What about conditions on death row? The constitution doesn’t mandate comfortable prisons. To rise to the level of Eighth Amendment violation, prison conditions must involve unnecessary pain. The Court established a two-part analysis to rule the Eights Amendment challenges to conditions of confinement. First, an inmate has to show that the condition is very serious to violate the Eighth Amendment. Second, an inmate must show that prison officials “acted with a sufficiently culpable state of mind.”

The first case addressed death row conditions at the Mississippi State Penitentiary in Parchman. The Fifth U.S Circuit of Appeals described the conditions in which Mississippi death row inmates had to live:

• Sanitation-inmates were in cells that were horribly dirty with peeling paint, dried fecal matter, water from toilets and rain leaks. These types of conditions played a major role in the mental well being of inmates.

• Heating and Cooling-the summer temperature in the Mississippi Delta average in nineties, and Death Row had primarily no air-conditioned facilities. The probability of heat related illness was extreme on Death Row.

• Pest Control-mosquitoes in Mississippi were problem that couldn’t be eliminated. Poor screening on the cell windows caused inmates to suffer from the heat or increasing the mosquitoes in their cells.

• “Ping-Pong” Toilets and Plumbing-things flushed by a toilet would bubble up in the cell unless the toilets were flushed at once.

• Lighting-while 20 foot candles are the good size to light the cells; the candles in the cells were 2-4 foot long only.

• Laundry-the inmates’ laundry was returned dirty smelling.

• Mental Health Issues-the awfully psychotic prisoners screamed at night and made life miserable for other inmates and guards. The mental health care that was afforded to the inmates on Death Row was very inadequate.

• Exercise-inmates had to work out with flip-flops. They didn’t have access to sneakers and water and shade while exercising.

Turning to methods of execution, after the ratification of the Eighth Amendment, hanging was the only legally authorized method of execution in the United States. Currently, there are five methods of execution authorized in the United States:

1. 1. Hanging
2. 2. Firing Squad
3. 3. Electrocution
4. 4. Lethal Gas
5. Lethal Injection

Hanging

Hanging was one of the first lawful and widely used methods of execution in the United States. In colonial America, hanging had a dual role. Its primary role was an execution method. The second use of hanging, “simulated hanging,” was for offenders convicted of a second robbery or burglary. In the nineteenth century, British hangman discovered “long drop”, which was a fall to break the neck and cause painless and quick death. Two states-New Hampshire and Washington-still allow hangings.

Firing Squad

Execution by firing squad is currently an option in two states: Idaho and Oklahoma. Also, in Utah, execution by firing squad is available for those inmates who chose that option before legislation passed in March 2004. There is no evidence, but they assume that execution by firing squad caused a quick death with little or no pain. The last person executed by firing squad in the U.S was John Albert Tyler, in 1996.

Electrocution

In October 2001, the Georgia Supreme Court ruled electrocution violated the eighth Amendment’s prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. Currently, Nebraska is the only state that still uses electrocution as the sole method of execution, though it remains an option in nine other states. Although many states have recently abandoned electrocution, between 1930 and 1972 it was the method employed by 25 states. William Kemmler became the first person to die by legally authorized electrocution on August 6, 1890.

Lethal Gas

In 1921 the Nevada legislature passed a “Humane Death Bill” and replaced hanging with death by lethal gas. The condemned inmate was to be executed in his or her cell, while asleep and without any warning. The first person to die under new legislation was Gee John. He was convicted of a gangland murder. By 1970, 10 states used lethal gas as the method of execution. Legal gas is currently an option in only five states.

Lethal Injection

Oklahoma was the first state that authorized lethal injection as an execution method. The legislation passed on May11, 1977 and replaced electrocution. Economic matters played a major role in Oklahoma’s change to lethal injection. Lethal injection was estimated to cost less than $15, while estimated cost of lethal gas was $300,000. The 1980 annual meeting of the American Medical Association saw a resolution passed urging doctors not to participate in executions by lethal injections beyond pronouncing an inmate dead. The first person executed by lethal injection was Charles Brooks, on December 7, 1982. Lethal injection had now become the major method of execution in all but one jurisdiction in the United States (the exception is Nebraska). Most jurisdictions use the three kinds of lethal drugs; however North Carolina and New Jersey use only two. Louisiana injects all three drugs into one IV inserted into the left arm. Lethal injection is the method of execution provided by the most states (36), as well as by the U.S government and military.

California’s Execution Process

When Execution Order is Received-Right after the execution order is received, the inmate is moved into special security area. The inmate receives priority visiting privileges.

Pre-Execution Reports-Two reports are prepared within three weeks of the established execution date. The first one is 20 days before the execution; the second one is seven days before the execution. Each report includes the following: psychiatric report, chaplain report, summary of behavior, and cover letter form warden.

Sanity review Requests-within 30 to seven days before the execution, the inmate’s attorney can submit current psychiatric information. This information will be provided to the panel of psychiatrists to consider in completion of the pre-execution psychiatric reports.

Last 24 Hours- about 6 p.m the day before the execution, the inmate will be moved to the death watch cell. Between 7 and 10 p.m, the inmate may be visited by the warden and the state chaplain. Later the inmate is escorted into the execution chamber and strapped onto a table. An IV is started in two veins. The warden issues the execution order.

The California Execution chamber includes: witness area, execution chamber, anteroom, chemical room, two holding cells, and kitchen/officers’ area. Only up to 50 people may witness an execution.