Electric chair vs. lethal injection: Which is the better way to die? (2024)

FAQs

Is the electric chair more humane than lethal injection? ›

Despite its historical significance in the context of the American death penalty, the use of the electric chair has diminished over time due to the increasing adoption of lethal injection as a more humane method of execution.

The Alabama attorney general's office told federal appeals court judges last week that nitrogen hypoxia is "the most painless and humane method of execution known to man." But what exactly Smith, 58, will feel after the warden switches on the gas is unknown, some doctors and critics say.

On that basis we determined that the most painful method of execution was Stoning, followed by Gassing, then Hanging, Beheading, Electrocution, Shooting, and least painful, Intravenous injection.

Electrocution Is Like “Being Burned Alive”

Contrary to early assumptions about the electric chair, there is no evidence that electrocution produces an instantaneous or painless death, the court found.

“It feels like your arm's on fire,” Groner told CNN, and the inmate could feel that pain if they are not fully unconscious, Zivot indicated. That pain is amplified by the dosage and speed at which the chemical is given to the inmate, Yen testified for the state in the Glossip v. Chandler case.

Inmates could remain conscious for up to 10 seconds after being shot depending on where bullets strike, Antognini said, and those seconds could be “severely painful, especially related to shattering of bone and damage to the spinal cord.”

In 2010, the Supreme People's Court began advocating the increased use of lethal injection rather than shooting as the favoured method of execution. In practice, however, China is believed to carry out executions by at least one other mode: organ removal.

By 1795, physicians such as Samuel Thomas von Sömmerring began to argue that perception may persist in the brain after decapitation - far from being the merciful execution that rendered commoner and noble equal in death, the guillotine was an agonizing torture [3].

It has advantages - no secret recipes for lethal injections, no botched placement of IV needles, no conflation of medicine and execution. While the guillotine provides a death that is not easy to witness, the death it delivers to the condemned is quick and does not cause the extended pain of bespoke lethal injections.

This Man Survived One Execution. Now, Alabama Will Try to Kill Him Again—With Nitrogen Gas. That's never happened before in the history of America. Kenneth Smith is slated for execution in Alabama via nitrogen hypoxia.

What death penalty hurts the least? ›

Answer and Explanation: Lethal injection is usually considered to be the most painless and humane form of execution. Lethal injection involves administering drugs that stop breathing and the heart from beating. The condemned criminal loses consciousness and then dies.

If someone survives the death penalty, they are usually re-executed, sometimes on the spot. Survival of the death penalty is not common, but has happened: people survive the intense shock of the electric chair or a lethal injection, requiring a second administration of the execution.

Scheduling the execution for 12:01 a.m. gives the state as much time as possible to deal with last-minute legal appeals and temporary stays, which have a way of eating up time. Another advantage is that the rest of the inmates are locked down and, presumably, asleep.

Others note that killings by firing squad are visibly violent and bloody compared with lethal injections, potentially traumatizing victims' relatives and other witnesses as well as executioners and staffers who clean up afterward.

On April 15, 2022, Moore chose to be executed by firing squad instead of the electric chair, however, his execution was later stayed by the South Carolina Supreme Court. As of 2024, Idaho, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Utah use the firing squad for the death penalty.

A guillotine, however, would not knock you unconscious if the blade was sharp. You would be in immense pain for an average of 40 seconds.

Firing squads are still allowed in Utah, Oklahoma, and Mississippi, but Utah is the only one to have performed one in the last ten years. New Hampshire is currently the only state that allows hanging as a means of execution.