PAST METHODS OF EXECUTION IN THE UNITED STATES
Think back to a time when you were in your history class learning about the death row and the death penalty. Hanging always was a popular method. Hanging was used up onto the 1890s (1). Now only two states allow hanging in America (1). In 2013, no one got executed by hanging (2). The reason for this being is people thought that was a cruel and unusual punishment. Many people in government wanted to make the executions appear more humane (3). Thus bringing you four different methods of execution.
Electrocution was one of the first new methods for execution. The first time it was used was in the 1890s (1). This did not turn out to be more humane. "...The prisoner's eyes sometimes pop out and they 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 sustained sound like bacon frying, and the sickly sweet smell of burning flesh permeates the chamber" (4), (1).
The gas chamber was first used in 1924 (1). California complained it was cruel and unusual punishment even for a death penalty (1). They put you any room and suffocate you with gases. Only five states allow this punishment for executions (1).
The lethal injection was created in 1982 (1). For the past few years, it is the most commonly used way to execute someone (5). They first inject you with a sleeping needle that makes you pass out they then they inject you with the poison (6). It courses through your veins and you never wake up again. It is the most humane way to execute someone over all of the other methods.
One of the last methods established was in 1996, it is the firing squad (1). They make the prisoner either stand or sit strapped to a wall or chair and have a line of prison guards each get a gun and point it at the prisoner. Everybody has rounds except one person has a blank (7). "The reason for the blank was that nobody could ever point to any man of the firing squad and say for definite that he had shot and killed the condemned" (7).
These are some of the many different ways people can be executed for death row. Most states who allow the death penalty will continue to use the lethal injection option.
1-
http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/descriptions-execution-methods?scid=8&did=479
2-
http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/execution-list-2013
3-
http://www.amnestyusa.org/our-work/issues/death-penalty/lethal-injection
4-
Ecenbarger, 1994
5-
https://www.princeton.edu/~achaney/tmve/wiki100k/docs/Lethal_injection.html
6-
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lethal_injection
7-
http://www.vincelewis.net/firingsquad.html