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Usage of lethal injection chair for the death penalty in the United States.      State uses only this method.      State uses this method primarily but has secondary methods.      State uses this as a secondary method.      State once used this method, but doesn't anymore.      State has never used this method. * U.S. Military: only lethal injection * Federal government: lethal injection as a primary method; retains secondary methods

Lethal injection is the practice of injecting a person with a fatal dose of drugs (typically a barbiturate) for the express purpose of causing the immediate death of the subject. The main application for this procedure is capital punishment, but the term may also be applied in a broad sense to euthanasia and suicide.




The People's Republic of China began using this method in 1997, Guatemala in 1998, the Philippines in 1999, Thailand in 2003, and Taiwan in 2005.[7] The Philippines has since abolished the death penalty.

Nazi Germany's T-4 Euthanasia Program used lethal injection as one of several methods to destroy what the Nazi government dubbed "life unworthy of life." KPD leader Ernst Thälman was one of a number of KZ prisoners killed by lethal injection.



Procedure in China executions

China uses a one drug method.

Procedure in U.S. executions

Executions by the federal government are carried out at the Terre Haute Federal Correctional Complex. The picture is of a gurney on which prisoners rest during an execution by lethal injection.

The condemned criminal offender 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 and secured to the prisoner's IV, and secured so the line does not snap during the injections.

The arm of the offender is swabbed with alcohol before the cannula is inserted.[9] The needles and equipment used are also 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 connections are clear, ensuring that the chemicals do not mix in the IV lines and occlude the needle, preventing the drugs from reaching the inmate. A heart monitor is attached so that prison officials can monitor when death has occurred.


  1. Sodium thiopental: ultra-short action barbiturate, an anaesthetic agent capable of rendering the prisoner unconscious in a few seconds.
  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 barbiturate is essential to minimize physical distress during the process; the infusion of the muscle relaxant induces complete paralysis but not unconsciousness, and the injection of a highly-concentrated solution of potassium chloride can cause severe pain in the site of the IV line as well as along the punctured arm.

The intravenous tubing leads to a room next to the execution chamber, usually separated from the offender by a curtain or wall. Typically a technician trained in venipuncture inserts the needle, while a second technician, who is usually a member of the prison staff, 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 offender 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.

In four states (Delaware, Illinois, Missouri, New Jersey), there is a lethal injection machine designed by Massachusetts-based Fred A. Leuchter that comprises two components: the delivery module and the control module. Two staff members each have a station in which they key the machine on and depress two stations buttons to be ready in case of mechanical failure. Each person presses one station button on the console which travels to a computer which starts all three injections electronically. The computer then deletes who actually started the syringes so that the executioners do not have as much of a feeling of guilt. The delivery module has eight syringes. The end syringes containing saline, syringes 2, 4, 6 containing the lethal drugs for the main line and syringes 1, 3, 5 containing the injections for the back-up line. The system was used in New Jersey before the abolition of the death penalty in 2007. Illinois uses the computer, and Missouri and Delaware use the manual injection switch on the delivery panel.[10]


Conventional lethal injection protocol

Typically, three drugs are used in lethal injection: Sodium thiopental is used to induce unconsciousness; Pancuronium bromide (Pavulon, Curare) to cause muscle paralysis and respiratory arrest; and Potassium chloride to stop the heart.[11]

Sodium thiopental

  • Lethal injection dosage: 2-5 grams

Sodium thiopental (US trade name: Sodium Pentothal) is an ultra-short acting barbiturate, often used for anesthesia induction and for medically induced coma. The typical anesthesia induction dose is 3–5 mg/kg. Loss of consciousness is induced within 30–45 seconds at the typical dose, while a 5 gram dose 14 times the normal dose is likely to induce unconsciousness in 10 seconds.

Thiopental reaches the brain within seconds and attains a peak brain concentration of about 60% of the total dose in about 30 seconds. At this level, when used in medicine, the patient is unconscious. Within 5 to 20 minutes the percentage in the brain falls to about 15% of the total dose, since the drug redistributes to the rest of the body.

The half-life of this drug is about 11.5 hours[12], and the concentration in the brain remains at around 5-10% of the total dose during that time. When a 'mega-dose' is administered, as in state-sanctioned lethal injection, the concentration in the brain during the tail phase of the distribution remains higher than the peak concentration found in the induction dose for anesthesia. This is the reason why an ultra-short acting barbiturate, such as thiopental, can be used for long-term induction of medical coma.

After a 5 gram dose consciousness will be regained in about 5 to 6 half-lives, which occurs in about 57–69 hours. The effects of such a high dose, however, include profound respiratory depression (depression of the brainstem respiratory center) and vascular collapse (vasodilation and myocardial depression), which is in itself lethal.


Barbiturates are the same class of drug used in medically assisted suicide, but it is the only drug used, in contrast to the three-poison cocktail typically employed for capital punishment. In euthanasia protocols, the typical dose of thiopental is 20 mg/kg[13]. The dose used for capital punishment is therefore about 3 times more than the dose used in euthanasia.

Pancuronium bromide (Pavulon)

  • Lethal injection dosage: 100 milligrams


The typical dose for pancuronium bromide in capital punishment by lethal injection is 0.2 mg/kg (a person who weighs 200 pounds, or 91 kilograms, would get a dose of around 18 mg). With a 100 milligram dose, the onset of paralysis occurs in around 15 to 30 seconds, and the duration of paralysis is around 4 to 8 hours. Paralysis of respiratory muscles will lead to death in a considerably shorter time.

Other drugs in use are tubocurarine chloride and succinylcholine chloride.

Pancuronium bromide is a derivative of the alkaloid malouetine from the plant Malouetia bequaertiana. [2]

Potassium chloride

Potassium is an electrolyte, 98% of which is intracellular. The 2% remaining outside of the cell has great implications for cells that generate action potentials. Doctors prescribe potassium for patients when there is insufficient potassium, called hypokalemia, in the blood. The potassium can be given orally, which is the safest route; or it can be given intravenously, in which case there are strict rules and hospital protocols on the rate at which it is given.

The usual intravenous dose is 10-20 mEq per hour and it is given slowly since it takes time for the electrolyte to equilibrate into the cells. When used in state-sanctioned lethal injection, bolus potassium injection affects the electrical conduction of heart muscle. Elevated potassium, or hyperkalemia, causes the resting electrical potential of the heart muscle cells to be higher than normal. Without a negative resting potential, cardiac cells cannot generate impulses that lead to contraction.

Depolarizing the muscle cell inhibits its ability to fire by reducing the available number of sodium channels (they are placed in an inactivated state). ECG changes include faster repolarization (peaked T-waves), PR interval prolongation, widening of the QRS, and eventual sine-wave formation and asystole. The heart eventually stops in asystole. Cases of patients dying from hyperkalemia (usually secondary to renal failure) are well known in the medical community, where patients have been known to die very rapidly, having previously seemed to be normal.

Potassium chloride is also used in certain abortions to terminate pregnancies. (See, e.g., Justice Anthony Kennedy's description in the U.S. Supreme Court's opinion in Gonzales v. Carhart [3].)

New Ohio lethal injection protocol

The Ohio protocol, developed after the botch of Romell Broom's lethal injection, ensures the rapid and supposedly painless onset of anesthesia by only using sodium thiopental and eliminating the redundant use of curare and potassium, as the second and third drugs, respectively. It also provides for a secondary fail-safe measure using intramuscular injection of midazolam and hydromorphone in the event intravenous administration of the sodium thiopental proves labor-intensive, inconvenient, or painful for the condemned.[14]

Primary: Thiopental sodium, 5 grams, intravenous Secondary: Midazolam, 10 mg, intramuscular, and hydromorphone, 40 mg, intramuscular

The brief for the U.S. courts written by accessories to the State of Ohio implies that they were unable to find any physicians willing to participate in development of protocols for executions by lethal injection, as this would be a violation of the Hippocratic Oath, and such physicians would be thrown out of the medical community and shunned for engaging in such deeds, even if they could not lawfully be stripped of their license.[14]

On December 8, 2009, Kenneth Biros became the first person executed using Ohio's new 1-drug execution protocol. He was pronounced dead at 11:47 a.m. EST, only 10 minutes after receiving the injection.

Euthanasia protocol


First a coma is induced by intravenous administration of 1 g thiopental sodium (Nesdonal), if necessary, 1.5-2 g of the product in case of strong tolerance to barbiturates. Then 45 mg alcuronium chloride (Alloferin) or 18 mg pancuronium bromide (Pavulon) is injected. In order to ensure optimal availability, these agents are preferably given intravenously. However, there are substantial indications that they can also be injected intramuscularly. In severe hepatitis or cirrhosis of the liver, alcuronium is the agent of first choice.[4]
Intravenous administration is the most reliable and rapid way to accomplish euthanasia and therefore can be safely recommended. A coma is first induced by intravenous administration of 20 mg/kg thiopental sodium in a small volume (10 ml physiological saline). Then a triple intravenous dose of a non-depolarizing neuromuscular muscle relaxant is given, such as 20 mg pancuronium bromide or 20 mg vecuronium bromide (Norcuron). The muscle relaxant should preferably be given intravenously, in order to ensure optimal availability. Only for pancuronium dibromide are there substantial indications that the agent may also be given intramuscularly in a dosage of 40 mg.[5]


An overdose of potassium would lead to cardiac arrest within 20 seconds.

Constitutionality in the United States

In 2006, the Supreme Court ruled in Hill v. McDonough that death-row inmates in the United States could challenge the constitutionality of states' lethal injection procedures through a federal civil rights lawsuit. Since then, numerous death-row inmates have brought such challenges in the lower courts, claiming that lethal injection as currently practiced violates the ban on "cruel and unusual punishment" found in the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution.[15] Lower courts evaluating these challenges have reached opposing conclusions. For example, courts have found that lethal injection as practiced in California,[16] Florida,[17] and Tennessee[18] is unconstitutional. On the other hand, courts have found that lethal injection as practiced in Missouri,[19] Arizona,[20] and Oklahoma[21] is constitutionally acceptable. On September 25, 2007, the United States Supreme Court agreed to hear a lethal injection challenge arising from Kentucky, Baze v. Rees.[22]. In Baze, the Supreme Court addressed whether Kentucky's particular lethal injection procedure comports with the Eighth Amendment and will determine the proper legal standard by which lethal injection challenges in general should be judged, all in an effort to bring some uniformity to how these claims are handled by the lower courts.[23] Although uncertainty over whether executions in the United States would be put on hold during the period in which the United States Supreme Court considers the constitutionality of lethal injection initially arose after the court agreed to hear Baze[24], no executions took place during the period between when the court agreed to hear the case and when its ruling was announced, with the exception of one lethal injection in Texas hours after the court made its announcement.[25]

On April 16, 2008 the Supreme Court rejected Baze v. Rees thereby upholding Kentucky's method of lethal injection in a majority 7-2 decision.[26] Ruth Bader Ginsburg and David Souter dissented.[27] Several states immediately indicated plans to proceed with executions.

Ethics of lethal injection

The American Medical Association believes that a physician's opinion on capital punishment is a personal decision. Since the AMA is founded on preserving life, they argue that a doctor "should not be a participant" in executions in any form with the exception of "certifying death, provided that the condemned has been declared dead by another person"[6]. Amnesty International argues that the AMA's position effectively "prohibits doctors from participating in executions." [7] The AMA, though, does not have the authority to prohibit doctors from participation in lethal injection, nor does it have the authority to revoke medical licenses, since this is the responsibility of the individual states.


It is not clear how drugs available only on the prescription of a doctor are available for execution. The AMA Code of ethics[28] specifically prohibits prescription by a doctor of the drugs for lethal injection. Ethical and legal constraints forbid pharmacists dispensing a drug without a valid prescription. A valid prescription can only be written by a doctor with an established relationship to the patient, with the patient's consent, for the benefit of the patient, and in the area of the doctor's expertise, among other requirements.




Opponents of lethal injection believe that it is not actually painless as practiced in the United States. Opponents argue that the thiopental is an ultra-short acting barbiturate that may wear off (anesthesia awareness) and lead to consciousness and an excruciatingly painful death wherein the inmate is unable to express his or her pain because he has been rendered paralyzed by the paralytic agent.[29]


Additionally, opponents argue that the method of administration is also flawed. They state that since the personnel administering the lethal injection lack expertise in anesthesia, the risk of failing to induce unconsciousness is greatly increased. In reference to this problem, Jay Chapman, the creator of lethal injection, said, "It never occurred to me when we set this up that we’d have complete idiots administering the drugs."[30] Also, they argue that the dose of sodium thiopental must be customized to each individual patient, not restricted to a set protocol. Finally, the remote administration results in an increased risk that insufficient amounts of the lethal injection drugs enter the bloodstream.[29]


Opponents of lethal injection as currently practiced argue that the procedure employed is designed to create the appearance of serenity and a painless death, rather than actually providing it. More specifically, opponents object to the use of Pancuronium bromide, arguing that its use in lethal injection serves no useful purpose since the inmate is physically restrained. Therefore the default function of pancuronium bromide would be to suppress the autonomic nervous system, specifically to stop breathing.[29]




In 2007, the same group that authored The Lancet study extended its study of the lethal injection process through a critical examination of the pharmacology of the barbiturate thiopental. This study published in the online journal PloS Medicine [9] confirmed and extended the conclusions made in The Lancet article and go further to disprove the assertion that the lethal injection process is painless. To date these two studies by the University of Miami team serve as the only critical peer-reviewed examination of the pharmacology of the lethal injection process. These findings also appear to be further supported by increased reporting of problematic lethal injections in the United States.

Single drug

The execution can be painlessly accomplished, without risk of consciousness, by the injection of a single large dose of barbiturate.[31] By this logic, the use of any other chemicals is entirely superfluous and only serves to unnecessarily increase the risk of pain during the execution. Another possibility would be the infusion of a powerful and fast-acting narcotic, such as fentanyl, which would ensure comfort while suppressing the offender's respiratory drive.

When sodium pentobarbital, a barbiturate used in animal euthanasia, is administered in an overdose, it causes rapid unconsciousness. Respiratory arrest follows next, through paralysis of the diaphragm and collapse of the lungs. The drug would then suppress cardiac activity, thus causing death.

Cruel and unusual

On occasion, there have also been difficulties inserting the intravenous needles, sometimes taking over half an hour to find a suitable vein.[32] Typically, the difficulty is found in convicts with a history of intravenous drug use. Opponents argue that the insertion of intravenous lines that take excessive amounts of time are tantamount to being cruel and unusual punishment. In addition, opponents point to instances where the intravenous line has failed, or where there have been adverse reactions to drugs, or unnecessary delays during the process of execution.

On December 13, 2006, Angel Nieves Diaz was not executed successfully in Florida using a standard lethal injection dose. Diaz was 55 years old, and had been sentenced to death for murder. Diaz did not succumb to the lethal dose even after 35 minutes, necessitating a second dose of drugs to complete the execution. At first, a prison spokesman denied Diaz had suffered pain, and claimed the second dose was needed because Diaz had some sort of liver disease.[33] After performing an autopsy, the Medical Examiner, Dr. William Hamilton, stated that Diaz’s liver appeared normal, but that the needle had been pierced through Diaz’s vein into his flesh. The deadly chemicals had subsequently been injected into soft tissue, rather than into the vein.[34] Two days after the execution, then-Governor Jeb Bush suspended all executions in the state and appointed a commission “to consider the humanity and constitutionality of lethal injections.”[35]


The execution of Romell Broom was abandoned in Ohio on September 15, 2009, after prison officials failed to find a vein after 2 hours of trying on his arms, legs, hands and ankle. This has stirred up intense debate in the United States about lethal injection.[37]




Anesthesia awareness

Thiopental is a rapid and effective drug for inducing unconsciousness, since it causes loss of consciousness upon one circulation through the brain due to its high lipophilicity. Only a few other drugs, such as methohexital, etomidate, or propofol have the capability to induce anesthesia so rapidly. (Narcotics such as Fentanyl are inadequate as induction agents for anesthesia.) Supporters argue that since the thiopental is given at a much higher dose than for medically-induced coma protocols, it is effectively impossible for the condemned to wake up.

Anesthesia awareness occurs when general anesthesia is inadequately maintained, for a number of reasons. Typically, anesthesia is induced with an intravenous drug, but maintained with an inhaled anesthetic given by the anesthesiologist (note that there are several other methods of safely and effectively maintaining anesthesia). Barbiturates are used only for induction of anesthesia and these drugs rapidly and reliably induce anesthesia, but wear off quickly. A neuromuscular blocking drug may then be given to cause paralysis which facilitates intubation, although this is not always required. The anesthesiologist has the responsibility to ensure that the maintenance technique (typically inhalational) is started soon after induction to prevent the patient from waking up.


Thiopental has a half-life of approximately 11.5 hours (however, the action of a single dose is terminated within a few minutes by redistribution of the drug from the brain to peripheral tissues) and the long acting barbiturate phenobarbital has a half-life of approximately 4–5 days. It contrasts towards the inhaled anesthetics have extremely short half-lives and allow the patient to wake up rapidly and predictably after surgery.


Dilution effect



Supporters of the death penalty state that the claim that the pancuronium prevents the thiopental from working, yet is still capable of causing paralysis, is not based on any scientific evidence and is a drug interaction that has never before been documented for any other drugs. Supporters of the death penalty question if this is an invented false claim.

Single drug

Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the Death Penalty Information Center, and other anti-death penalty groups have not proposed a lethal injection protocol which they believe is less painful. Supporters of the death penalty argue that the lack of an alternative proposed protocol is testament to the fact that the painfulness of the lethal injection protocol is not the issue. Instead supporters argue that the issue is the continued existence of the death penalty, since if the only issue was the painfulness of the procedure, then Amnesty International, HRW, or the DPIC should have already proposed a less painful method.

Regardless of an alternative protocol, some death penalty opponents have claimed that execution can be less painful by the administration of a single lethal dose of barbiturate. Supporters of the death penalty, however, state that the single drug theory is a flawed concept. Terminally ill patients in Oregon who have requested physician-assisted suicide have received lethal doses of barbiturates. The protocol has been highly effective in producing a painless death, but the time to cause death can be prolonged. Some patients have taken days to die, and a few patients have actually survived the process and have regained consciousness up to three days after taking the lethal dose.[38] In a Californian legal proceeding addressing the issue of the lethal injection cocktail being "cruel and unusual," state authorities said that the time to death following a single injection of barbiturate is approximately 45 minutes.[39]

Scientifically, this is readily explained. Barbiturate overdoses typically cause death by depression of the respiratory center, but the effect is variable. Some patients may have complete cessation of respiratory drive, whereas others may only have depression of respiratory function. In addition, cardiac activity can last for a long time after cessation of respiration. Since death is pronounced after asystole and given that the expectation is for a rapid death in lethal injection, multiple drugs are required; specifically potassium chloride to stop the heart. In fact, in the case of Clarence Ray Allen a second dose of potassium chloride was required to attain asystole. The position of most death penalty supporters is that death should be attained in a reasonable amount of time.


See also


  1. ^ "So Long as They Die: Lethal Injections in the United States," Human Rights Watch, 2006, 18(1). I. Development of Lethal Injection Protocols. Cites DPIC, "Methods of Execution.".
  2. ^ "Tödliche Injektion." (German)
  3. ^ a b Capital Punishment U.K.: Lethal injection."
  5. ^
  6. ^ Groner JI (2002). "Lethal injection: a stain on the face of medicine". BMJ 325 (7371): 1026–8. doi:10.1136/bmj.325.7371.1026. PMID 12411367. 
  7. ^ Lethal injection
  8. ^ "Administration and Compounding of Euthanisic Agents," Royal Dutch Society for the Advancement of Pharmacy, 1994.
  9. ^ Cecil Adams. "When someone is executed by lethal injection, do they swab off the arm first?", The Straight Dope. Retrieved on May 2nd, 2007.
  10. ^ FRED A
  11. ^
  12. ^ "Pharmacokinetics and plasma binding of thiopental. I: Studies in surgical patients.". Retrieved 2008-07-31. 
  13. ^ "Administration and Compounding of Euthanasiac Agents". Retrieved 2008-07-31. 
  14. ^ a b New Ohio Poisoning Protocol
  15. ^
  16. ^
  17. ^
  18. ^
  19. ^
  20. ^ State v. Adams, 194 Ariz. 408 (1999).
  22. ^ Miscellaneous Order - September 25, 2007
  23. ^
  24. ^ Sentencing Law and Policy: Everyone trying to figure out if there is now an execution moratorium
  25. ^ - Breaking News - UN calls for US death penalty halt
  26. ^ "Supreme Court clears way for executions to resume" Reuters, April 16th, 2008.
  27. ^ Bill Mears. "High court upholds lethal injection method" CNN April 16, 2008.
  28. ^ [1]
  29. ^ a b c d e Horizon: How to Kill a Human Being
  30. ^ Weil, Elizabeth The Needle and the Damage Done February 11, 2007
  31. ^ Why do lethal injections have three drugs? - By Daniel Engber - Slate Magazine
  32. ^ Lethal injection.
  33. ^ Florida lethal injection takes 34 minutes. United Press International, at NewsDaily, December 14, 2006.
  34. ^ "Some Examples of Post-Furman Botched Executions." University of Colorado, December 16, 2006
  35. ^ "After Problem Execution, Governor Bush Suspends the Death Penalty in Florida." New York Times, December 16, 2006.
  36. ^ "Lethal Injection for Execution: Chemical Asphyxiation?". PLoS Medicine. April 2007. Retrieved 2007-04-24. 
  37. ^ "Execution Methods Examined". The Washington Post. October 12, 2009. 
  38. ^
  39. ^,1,524324.story?page=2


External links

Simple English

Lethal injection is injecting a person with poison, usually a fatal dose of drugs so that person will die. This is usually done as capital punishment. It is the main way to execute prisoners in the United States. [1] The idea of lethal injection was first suggested in New York in 1888, but Oklahoma was the first place to make a law that said it could use it in 1977.[2] Texas was the first state to actually use lethal injection for an execution. This first happened when Charlie Brooks was executed in 1982. Thirty-four US states now use it for capital punishment.[2]. Other countries to use it are China, Taiwan, the Philippines and Guatemala.[2]

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