# Execution by lethal injection
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/execution-by-lethal-injection/784794
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [April 19, 2017, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/execution-by-lethal-injection/784794 "2017-04-19T15:46:46Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 3
### Author:  [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)
#### Post date: [April 20, 2017, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/execution-by-lethal-injection/784794/41 "2017-04-20T02:04:12Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#):
>
> Oh.
>
> Well, what about carbon monoxide, then?
That’s what Dr. Kevorkian used.
Problem is, when you have someone not cooperating, the gas mask is dangerous. You run the risk of leaks if they struggle. So you are back to the gas chamber.
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### Author:  [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)
#### Post date: [April 20, 2017, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/execution-by-lethal-injection/784794/42 "2017-04-20T02:16:11Z")
Well, hell.
Let’s go for life in prison without cable TV.
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### Author:  [@Dana\_Scully](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dana_Scully)
#### Post date: [April 20, 2017, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/execution-by-lethal-injection/784794/43 "2017-04-20T04:38:21Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#):
>
> [Morphine overdose:](http://drugabuse.com/library/morphine-overdose/)
>
> As you can see, a morphine overdose can be an unpleasant experience, to say the least.
* * *
I think death by **murder** can be pretty unpleasant too. I’d be all in favor of lining them up and shooting them. And don’t let them–the prisoners–know their executions are being recorded and thus avoid any last minute histrionics.:mad:
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### Author:  [@Dana\_Scully](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dana_Scully)
#### Post date: [April 20, 2017, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/execution-by-lethal-injection/784794/44 "2017-04-20T04:48:36Z")
> [@Hari\_Seldon](#):
>
> Since nicotine is quite poisonous, maybe tobacco companies can be enlisted to made a lethal potion. It seems unlikely that there is anything a tobacco company won’t do for money.
🆒!!
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### Author:  [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)
#### Post date: [April 20, 2017, 11:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/execution-by-lethal-injection/784794/45 "2017-04-20T11:41:36Z")
> [@Dana\_Scully](#):
>
> * * *
>
> I think death by **murder** can be pretty unpleasant too. I’d be all in favor of lining them up and shooting them. And don’t let them–the prisoners–know their executions are being recorded and thus avoid any last minute histrionics.:mad:
How would they not know? Are these recording going to supersecret never-to-be-released-to-the-public things, or what? If not, then it will be public knowledge, and the fact that the government is in the business of making snuff films is going to make things _much_ worse.
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### Author:  [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)
#### Post date: [April 20, 2017, 11:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/execution-by-lethal-injection/784794/46 "2017-04-20T11:41:36Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#):
>
> If anesthesiologists were willing to participate, sure. But they aren’t, because it means loss of board certification.
Then make it worth their while, financially. I’m sure there are anesthesiologists who are tired of the profession and would give it up to become executioners. What is the state willing to pay?
> [@carnivorousplant](#):
>
> Well, hell.
> Let’s go for life in prison without cable TV.
Cruel and unusual.
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### Author:  [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)
#### Post date: [April 20, 2017, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/execution-by-lethal-injection/784794/47 "2017-04-20T13:06:36Z")
> [@kayaker](#):
>
> Then make it worth their while, financially. I’m sure there are anesthesiologists who are tired of the profession and would give it up to become executioners. What is the state willing to pay?
I don’t know what anesthesiologists make, but I know what they charge.
I can’t see them making the same amount of money unless they were doing dozens of executions a month, or we were paying them tens of thousands per execution.
Neither is a road I would heartily endorse.
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### Author:  [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)
#### Post date: [April 20, 2017, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/execution-by-lethal-injection/784794/48 "2017-04-20T13:13:20Z")
> [@kayaker](#):
>
> Then make it worth their while, financially. I’m sure there are anesthesiologists who are tired of the profession and would give it up to become executioners. What is the state willing to pay?
If they take a job as executioner, they would effectively end their careers. To make it worth their while, financially, you’ have to pay a lump sum equivalent to 10 to 20 years salary.
Do you know how much an anesthesiologist makes?
[Average $269,612 per year.](http://www.payscale.com/research/US/Job=Anesthesiologist/Salary)
Gonna be pretty expensive.
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### Author:  [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)
#### Post date: [April 20, 2017, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/execution-by-lethal-injection/784794/49 "2017-04-20T13:21:32Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#):
>
> If anesthesiologists were willing to participate, sure. But they aren’t, because it means loss of board certification.
> [@Northern\_Piper](#):
>
> And then the pharmaceutical companies, many of which are not in the US, will stop selling conventional anaesthetics to the US, causing a shortage of anaesthetics for regular medical treatments.
This is just another part of the political problem. It’s not the same as having medical personnel actually kill the condemned, but it’s still going to cause problems. An anesthesiologist would be relieving the anguish of someone about to be executed yet at the same time participating in a procedure they and there colleagues would consider wrong in the first place. There is no single piece of this puzzle missing to fill in, there’s just no set of pieces that put together form a clear picture.
> [@RivkahChaya](#):
>
> That’s what Dr. Kevorkian used.
>
> Problem is, when you have someone not cooperating, the gas mask is dangerous. You run the risk of leaks if they struggle. So you are back to the gas chamber.
Certainly a simple mask is not suitable, even for nitrogen there are dangers. Indeed, a sealed chamber would be necessary, it’s just not necessary to use cyanide gas or other substances that would cause great suffering.
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### Author:  [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)
#### Post date: [April 20, 2017, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/execution-by-lethal-injection/784794/50 "2017-04-20T13:22:11Z")
It really wouldn’t matter if you switched to certified anesthesiologists, unless you changed the law to allow for judgment calls. The main advantage to having a person who knows what they are doing is having someone who can adapt the procedure to the patient, and right now the laws are written so that the procedure is identical every time. That’s actually one of the reasons it can go wrong-- it ought to be tailored to the “patient,” but then, we get into the realm of calling them patients, requiring doctors, and that’s not what people want.
I think really the problem is that lethal injection satisfies no one. People who support the death penalty don’t really want it to be clean and painless, and people who don’t support aren’t mollified by the idea that the prisoner doesn’t suffer. So no one is really committed to fixing the problems with it.
Not to mention that drug companies don’t want to support it, and they ought to have the right not to, IMO.
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### Author:  [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)
#### Post date: [April 20, 2017, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/execution-by-lethal-injection/784794/51 "2017-04-20T13:25:39Z")
> [@TriPolar](#):
>
> This is just another part of the political problem. It’s not the same as having medical personnel actually kill the condemned, but it’s still going to cause problems. An anesthesiologist would be relieving the anguish of someone about to be executed yet at the same time participating in a procedure they and there colleagues would consider wrong in the first place. There is no single piece of this puzzle missing to fill in, there’s just no set of pieces that put together form a clear picture.
>
> Certainly a simple mask is not suitable, even for nitrogen there are dangers. Indeed, a sealed chamber would be necessary, it’s just not necessary to use cyanide gas or other substances that would cause great suffering.
Apparently the gas chamber was hard on the witnesses. Unlike hanging or electrocution, you can’t put a mask over the prisoner’s face. It’s never been used much. Plus, venting it afterwards is difficult.
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### Author:  [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)
#### Post date: [April 20, 2017, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/execution-by-lethal-injection/784794/52 "2017-04-20T16:13:29Z")
I had read once that the Russian (Soviet?) execution method was simple. the condemned was kept on death row. Each day, they come out of their cell, walk down the corridor to whatever else they do in jail - common room, food, whatever. One random day, they never know when, they will be shot in the back of the head from a hidden sniper as they walk down that corridor.
I presume the corridors are easy to hose down.
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### Author:  [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)
#### Post date: [April 20, 2017, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/execution-by-lethal-injection/784794/53 "2017-04-20T16:23:54Z")
> [@md2000](#):
>
> I had read once that the Russian (Soviet?) execution method was simple. the condemned was kept on death row. Each day, they come out of their cell, walk down the corridor to whatever else they do in jail - common room, food, whatever. One random day, they never know when, they will be shot in the back of the head from a hidden sniper as they walk down that corridor.
>
> I presume the corridors are easy to hose down.
Yeah, but that wasn’t the condemned. That was the public.
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### Author:  [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)
#### Post date: [April 20, 2017, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/execution-by-lethal-injection/784794/54 "2017-04-20T16:47:46Z")
Not quite accurate. It’s true that the condemned man would not be told in advance the date and time of his execution. No concealed sniper, though. He would be taken to the execution room and shot in the head with a handgun.
> **[Capital punishment in Russia | Procedure](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_punishment_in_Russia#Procedure)**
>
> Historically, various types of capital punishment were used in Russia, such as hanging, breaking wheel, burning, beheading, flagellation by knout until death etc. During the times of Ivan the Terrible, capital punishment often took exotic and torturous forms, impalement being one of its most common types.\[citation needed\] Certain crimes incurred specific forms of capital punishment, e.g. coin counterfeiters were executed by pouring molten lead into their throats, while certain religious crimes we...
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### Author:  [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)
#### Post date: [April 20, 2017, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/execution-by-lethal-injection/784794/55 "2017-04-20T20:20:31Z")
This topic has come up many times before.
One problem not discussed as to humans vs. animals is that very few animals being put down have spent years injecting themselves with all sorts of drugs. Drugs which damage veins needed for lethal injection. Drugs which the prisoner may have developed great tolerance for and which might carry over into tolerance for the lethal injection drugs.
The whole “We sent Serial Killer Joe to a nice farm upstate.” mentality associated with lethal injection is deplorable. It is frequently botched and no wonder a lot of companies don’t want to be associated with it.
Bullets, hanging, etc. are more humane (umm, I mean, err …). Gas chambers and electric chairs are less humane. If you want the job done quickly with as little likelihood of a botch job, forget lethal injection. Just forget it.
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### Author:  [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)
#### Post date: [April 20, 2017, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/execution-by-lethal-injection/784794/56 "2017-04-20T20:46:54Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#):
>
> Apparently the gas chamber was hard on the witnesses. Unlike hanging or electrocution, you can’t put a mask over the prisoner’s face.
Not sure why; a bag made of woven material would let the gas through just fine.
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### Author:  [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)
#### Post date: [April 20, 2017, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/execution-by-lethal-injection/784794/57 "2017-04-20T23:12:28Z")
[Barbara Graham](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara_Graham)was allowed to wear a blindfold in the gas chamber.
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### Author:  [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)
#### Post date: [April 21, 2017, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/execution-by-lethal-injection/784794/58 "2017-04-21T03:17:47Z")
Recently Alabama (or some other state) tried to legalize execution by nitrogen asphyxiation.
It was opposed by a lawmaker on the grounds that “It’s never been done before.”
Well, sure, of course - everything by definition has never been done before, prior to being done for the first time. There was a time when lethal injection, electrocution, hanging, firing squad, etc. had all “never been done before.” Catch-22 logic.
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### Author:  [@Tibby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tibby)
#### Post date: [April 21, 2017, 6:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/execution-by-lethal-injection/784794/59 "2017-04-21T06:37:24Z")
If I found myself sentenced to death and allowed to choose my method of execution, I’d choose to be given 10 mg Xanax, followed by high dose [Bromptons Cocktai](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brompton_cocktail)l, followed ~20 minutes later by a penetrating captive bolt to my forehead (with a cattle stunner) and immediae exanguination. Short, sweet, complete.
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### Author:  [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)
#### Post date: [April 21, 2017, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/execution-by-lethal-injection/784794/60 "2017-04-21T12:32:13Z")
I should like to be sentenced to die of Old Age.
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