Word: methodically
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...first proposal for using injected drugs as a form of capital punishment came in the late 19th century, when a New York commission on capital punishment included the suggestion that the method might prove more humane than hanging. According to Robert M. Bohm, a professor at the University of Central Florida who has written extensively on capital punishment, the proposal was rejected over concerns it would lead the public to associate the hypodermic needle - only recently introduced as an important medical tool - with death. During World War II, lethal injection was part of the Nazis' chilling arsenal of methods...
...executed using three drugs administered in a specific sequence: a barbiturate (to anesthetize inmates), pancuronium bromide (to paralyze inmates and stop their breathing) and lastly potassium chloride (which stops the heart). A simpler, barbiturate-only procedure was rejected on the grounds that the public would not support a killing method for humans modeled after that used for animals, according to Ty Alper, a lawyer who represents death-row inmates and is associate director of the Death Penalty Clinic at the University of California at Berkeley School...
...years since, lethal injection has become the standard method in the U.S., although other types of executions can still be carried out in some states. Prisoners in some jurisdictions can choose their method of execution, and the vast majority opt for lethal injection. In all, 936 out of the 1,107 U.S. prisoners executed since 1977 have died by the method, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. Just five U.S. inmates have been executed any other way since 2000 - all by the electric chair - although other options are still on the books in some states, including the firing squad...
...basic method for killing someone by lethal injection in the U.S. is fairly consistent. The inmate is strapped to a gurney and covered with a sheet, and intravenous lines are connected to both arms. After last rites and an opportunity for any final words, the drugs are typically administered by a prison employee or medical professional either in another room or behind a curtain. (The ethical implications for medical professionals participating in executions are a matter of much debate: most of the country's leading medical organizations, including the American Medical Association, the American Nurses Association and the American Society...
...Outside the U.S., according to Amnesty International, lethal-injection executions have been carried out in China, Thailand, Guatemala and the Philippines, although the last two of these countries recently outlawed capital punishment. (Taiwan technically permits lethal-injection executions but has never killed anyone with the method.) China, which executes more people than any other nation by far, is phasing out death by gunshot in favor of lethal injection; the government provides mobile execution vans, which travel to smaller cities and towns that don't have permanent death chambers. While that morbid procession wouldn't fly in Virginia, the state clearly...