# Why isn't anesthesia used for executions? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 3, 2022, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-anesthesia-used-for-executions/958865 "2022-02-03T18:25:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2024, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-anesthesia-used-for-executions/958865/41 "2024-03-05T14:04:46Z")
> [@Cheesesteak](#): > > If this is important enough, you can go right back to highly effective methods like hanging, shooting, electrocuting or guillotining. They’re just not pretty and clinical, they don’t let the subject die quietly and cleanly like they just went to sleep, they’re messy ways to kill people. However, if it’s super important to kill someone, why worry about neatness? Since this is FQ, that brings up a factual question. Are hanging, guillotine, or shooting actually forbidden by the SCOTUS as “cruel and unusual”, or is there anything else (other than optics) preventing a state from reimplementing these methods? Or, could a state bring back the guillotine tomorrow, explain that while it is indeed quite messy it is also a much more humane and quick way to kill someone than faffing about with injections, invest heavily in plastic tarps, and start executing their backlog of Death row inmates? ---
**Author:** ![Jas09](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d07c76/32.png) [@Jas09](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jas09)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2024, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-anesthesia-used-for-executions/958865/42 "2024-03-05T14:18:45Z")
> [@Babale](#): > > Are hanging, guillotine, or shooting actually forbidden by the SCOTUS as “cruel and unusual”, or is there anything else (other than optics) preventing a state from reimplementing these methods? Or, could a state bring back the guillotine tomorrow, explain that while it is indeed quite messy it is also a much more humane and quick way to kill someone than faffing about with injections, invest heavily in plastic tarps, and start executing their backlog of Death row inmates? Hanging is perfectly OK. Firing squads are fine too, I believe. In fact, I’m not sure that SCOTUS has expressly outlawed any particular techniques. Cite: [https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/URLs\_Cited/OT2020/20-287/20-287-1.pdf](https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/URLs_Cited/OT2020/20-287/20-287-1.pdf) ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2024, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-anesthesia-used-for-executions/958865/43 "2024-03-05T15:50:50Z")
Here’s a good analysis of methods of execution in the United States. > **[Methods of Execution](https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/executions/methods-of-execution)** > > The Death Penalty Information Center is a non-profit organization serving the media and the public with analysis and information about capital punishment.… Specifically regarding case law judgements regarding specific methods: > The Supreme Court has never found a method of execution to be unconstitutional, though some methods have been declared unconstitutional by state courts. ---
**Author:** ![md-2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9d8465/32.png) [@md-2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md-2000)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2024, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-anesthesia-used-for-executions/958865/44 "2024-03-05T19:39:21Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > IIRC, there was a bizarre Supreme Court decision about this about 40-some years ago. They decided that the condemned person must be awake and must experience his execution. They decided that it was “cruel and unusual punishment” otherwise. Odd. IIRC the preferred method of execution in the USSR (and Russia?), not known for consideration for prisoners, was that the prisoner would be shot in the back of the head unawares at an unspecified time from a distance - i.e. they wouldn’t see it coming. I suppose it’s a debate whether this is more humane that a scheduled performance time and place would be, I think it is. ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2024, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-anesthesia-used-for-executions/958865/45 "2024-03-05T19:51:20Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > IIRC, there was a bizarre Supreme Court decision about this about 40-some years ago. They decided that the condemned person must be awake and must experience his execution. They decided that it was “cruel and unusual punishment” otherwise. I think you might be misinterpreting (or remembering someone else’s misinterpretation of) _Ford v Wainwright_, 1986, which held that capital punishment cannot be inflicted on someone who lacked the conscious capability to understand their sentence due to insanity. In other words, you can’t execute someone who is legally not sane. Not, “you can’t execute someone who is legally not conscious.” But IANAL, and I didn’t google state capital punishment caselaw. > **[Ford v. Wainwright](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_v._Wainwright)** > > Ford v. Wainwright, 477 U.S. 399 (1986), was a landmark U.S. Supreme Court case that upheld the common law rule that the insane cannot be executed; therefore the petitioner is entitled to a competency evaluation and to an evidentiary hearing in court on the question of their competency to be executed. > Alvin Bernard Ford was convicted of murder in 1974 and sentenced to death in Florida. In 1982, while on death row, Ford's mental health diminished to a point resembling paranoid schizophrenia. Fo... ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2024, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-anesthesia-used-for-executions/958865/46 "2024-03-06T04:15:11Z")
> [@md-2000](#): > > Odd. IIRC the preferred method of execution in the USSR (and Russia?), not known for consideration for prisoners, was that the prisoner would be shot in the back of the head unawares at an unspecified time from a distance - i.e. they wouldn’t see it coming. > > I suppose it’s a debate whether this is more humane that a scheduled performance time and place would be, I think it is. ⁢ I don’t. That would seem to just leave the prisoner in perpetual fear. That seems far worse to me than having a set time you know and can learn to accept. That would be exactly why I would expect an authoritarian system to use that strategy. Because the fear is the point. ---
**Author:** ![Al128](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/al128/32/16541_2.png) [@Al128](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Al128)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2024, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-anesthesia-used-for-executions/958865/47 "2024-03-08T01:39:57Z")
not promoting the idea - but this russian-system has clear advantages from a resource POV: you won’t have sentenced (to death) people walking around for 35 years waiting to be killed … that is probably more a matter of weeks/months than years - as it often is the case in the US. … and while the act-proper should be failry painless to the prisoner … the collective angst of hearing a gunshot and then no longer see Sasha walking the halls must be “unusual and cruel” ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2024, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-anesthesia-used-for-executions/958865/48 "2024-03-08T01:45:31Z")
> [@Al128](#): > > not promoting the idea - but this russian-system has clear advantages from a resource POV But serious issues from a potential miscarriage of justice POV. The U.S. has had a fairly large number of people who were sentenced to death, who later were exonerated as their cases made their way through appeals, and/or as misconduct and errors during their original trials were uncovered. > [@](#): > > Since 1973, 197 former death-row prisoners have been exonerated of all charges related to the wrongful convictions that had put them on death row. Rapid executions make any such exonerations years later a moot point; you can release a person from prison when it turns out they’re innocent, but you can’t resurrect them if you’ve already executed them. > **[Innocence](https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/policy-issues/innocence)** > > The Death Penalty Information Center is a non-profit organization serving the media and the public with analysis and information about capital punishment.… ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2024, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-anesthesia-used-for-executions/958865/49 "2024-03-08T02:23:32Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > That would seem to just leave the prisoner in perpetual fear. On the other hand…aren’t we all? ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2024, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-anesthesia-used-for-executions/958865/50 "2024-03-08T02:36:19Z")
> [@Al128](#): > > you won’t have sentenced (to death) people walking around for 35 years waiting to be killed … why not? those delays aren’t normally tied to the manner of execution, but trial errors, counsel errors, etc. ---
**Author:** ![rbroome](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/838e76/32.png) [@rbroome](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rbroome)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2024, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-anesthesia-used-for-executions/958865/51 "2024-03-15T02:10:22Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > That would seem to just leave the prisoner in perpetual fear. And not just Russia. As I understand it, Japan does the same thing, or almost the same, for its death penalty cases. The condemned does not know when the sentence will be carried out. At least not before the big day. One day, the guards come to the cell and tell the prisoner today is the day. That is all the advance notice they get. The “fear” or uncertainty is considered a feature not a bug. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2024, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-anesthesia-used-for-executions/958865/52 "2024-04-25T22:44:35Z")
I read a book on executions shortly after I read (not SAW, though I did see it about 4 times due to being a projectionist in college) _Dead Man Walking_, and apparently it is normal for people whose executions are a day or two away to be offered sleeping pills at night, and antianxiety drugs the day of-- nearly all refuse. A few are inmates are repentant, and want to face death fully conscious, but many others do it out of bravado. And then, from what I understand from a completely different article on the subject, so many death row inmates have drug abuse histories, that sleeping pills, antianxiety drugs, and also, one supposes, anesthetic drugs, would not be very effective on them. ---
**Author:** ![md-2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9d8465/32.png) [@md-2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md-2000)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2024, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-anesthesia-used-for-executions/958865/53 "2024-04-26T14:13:16Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > > [@Al128](#): > > > > not promoting the idea - but this russian-system has clear advantages from a resource POV > > But serious issues from a potential miscarriage of justice POV. The U.S. has had a fairly large number of people who were sentenced to death, who later were exonerated as their cases made their way through appeals, and/or as misconduct and errors during their original trials were uncovered. > > > [@](#): > > > > Since 1973, 197 former death-row prisoners have been exonerated of all charges related to the wrongful convictions that had put them on death row. > > Rapid executions make any such exonerations years later a moot point; you can release a person from prison when it turns out they’re innocent, but you can’t resurrect them if you’ve already executed them. Yes - the basic problem seems to be a retributive system of justice, coupled with a police/law mentality to find someone, anyone, to blame. Those are just the people exonerated. It doesn’t include, I assume, people whose sentence was overturned or who received clemency. One major problem is “fixation” - the police decide “Bob did it” and then spend their time and effort trying to convict Bob. Sometimes the victim is weak-minded and is coerced into a false confession. The USA is not alone in this - Canada has had a string of similar myopic convictions overturned, often decades later at great cost to the alleged criminal. In some cases witnesses were coerced or threatened to get corroborating witnesses. Guy Paul Morin went through 3 trials in the 1990’s (each time, the appeal court said “nope!”) until DNA evidence became possible and exonerated him. Same DNA eventually identified family of the perpetrator and found him recently - after he’d been dead for years. Just in the news this year was the case of two men who spent 40 years behind bars after a police vendetta and coerced testimony from the actual perp. Another problem in the USA is the felony murder charge, and the desire of DA’s to pin blame. Often the actual murderer can turn state’s evdence for a lesser sentence and their accomplice is executed. As long as one person is executed, the DA’s statistics look good, details irrelevant. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-anesthesia-used-for-executions/958865.md?page=2)