Maureen Hoch

The death penalty is currently allowed in 31 of the 50 U.S. states. The most recent states
to abolish the death penalty are New Mexico, Illinois, Connecticut, and Maryland. These states
have steered away from the death penalty, and instead have imposed life imprisonment without
parole. Texas was the first state to use the death penalty in 1982. In 2008, the U.S Supreme
Court approved a three-drug combination, one of which causes cardiac arrest. This was the
same drug combination that was used in the first lethal injection execution. However, since
lethal injection drugs have became very difficult to purchase since manufactures refuse to sell to
states for the use of execution. States now have used new drugs or compounding pharmacies
to carry out means of lethal injection. Some states have turned to using the drug midazolam.
However, in Glossip v. Gross, the Supreme Court ruled that using this drug is cruel and unusual
punishment, violating the Eighth Amendment. Sixteen states including Alabama, Mississippi,
Tennessee, and South Carolina, have a secondary method of execution in place if lethal
injection is found to be unconstitutional and/or unavailable at the time. Arizona, Tennesses,
Kentucky, and Utah have a choice of a secondary method for any offender who was sentenced
before lethal injection existed. In other states like Alabama, Florida, Missouri, and South
Carolina, allow to the offender to request an alternative method of execution. Any of these
secondary methods include lethal gas, hanging, electrocution, firing squad, and nitrogen
hypoxia.
I find this article to be very informing on how states differ in the way they allow the use of
lethal injection. Some of these states allow offenders to choose an alternative method, which
surprised me because I did not know you could and I also find these states to be very lenient.
But then again, who would rather be hung or electrocuted. I wonder how often people choose
alternatives to lethal injection. Overall, I do find this source very useful in the future when putting
together my paper. I think it gave me a wide span of information nationwide.

“States and Capital Punishment.” ​National Conference of State Legislatures​, 6 June 2016,
http://www.ncsl.org/research/civil-and-criminal-justice/death-penalty.aspx

http://www.ncsl.org/research/civil-and-criminal-justice/death-penalty.aspx