Methods of Execution: Past, Present, and Controversies
Hanging, lethal injections, and the search for humane methods of execution are explored, along with recent controversies surrounding drug availability and potential suffering. The ethical and legal complexities of capital punishment are discussed, highlighting challenges in ensuring a painless death while complying with constitutional rights.
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Deadly Justice, Ch 10 Methods of Execution Feb 19, 2025 Baumgartner, POLI 203, Spring 2025 1
First, a quick diversion My educational record. I only ever went to 3 schools! No middle school, what a relief! But you ll see later what is my point. K-8, Thomas A. Edison Elementary School, Detroit 9-12, Cass Technical High School, Detroit (Go, Technicians!) BA, MA, PhD, University of Michigan (Go Blue!) At the end of this lecture you ll see, I want to start a petition to get the Detroit public schools to change the name of my alma-mater! I never knew much about Edison other than that he invented the lightbulb, the phonograph, and a bunch of other things. But, he also promoted the electric chair. That s a long story and we ll get into it today Baumgartner, POLI 203, Spring 2025 2
Methods: Hanging was most common once Baumgartner, POLI 203, Spring 2025 3
Modern methods: The continual search for humane methods Baumgartner, POLI 203, Spring 2025 4
Lethal injections Oklahoma medical examiner, let s improve on the electric chair 3 drug cocktail Sedative Paralytic agent (stop all muscle movement, such as twitching, grimacing) Stop the heart Some key questions If #1 fails, but #2 works, how would we know if #3 caused undue suffering? What is the point of #2 anyway? Certainly not for the inmate s benefit. The Medicalization paradox Baumgartner, POLI 203, Spring 2025 5
Recent controversies No US based pharmaceuticals manufacture the drugs. EU pressure on EU-based companies not to export them for this purpose. Difficulties in finding the drugs, illegal processes of importing them. Efforts to change the cocktail, develop new systems, nitrogen gas, other drug combinations, etc. How can you tell if they might cause suffering, as you can t test them. Allegations of human experimentation and the risk of painful death. Lawyers and judges making medical determinations. Paradoxes: Many would be totally fine with painful death, but the US constitution does not allow that, maybe. Baumgartner, POLI 203, Spring 2025 6
Post-mortem study of amount of anesthetic in the blood (Figure 10.4, from Deadly Justice) Baumgartner, POLI 203, Spring 2025 7
Back to the firing squad? We have never gone backwards. Each generation has declared finding a higher level of civilization compared to previous ones: electrocution, gas chamber, lethal injection. None has proven immune to botched application (No one has much practice, after all) For the Court: Isolated mishaps must be distinguished from systematic torture Lethal injection: No doctors, so can a prison guard do it? No drug imports, so can states get them from just anywhere? Very hard to regulate a medical procedure if no doctors involved Baumgartner, POLI 203, Spring 2025 8
North Carolinas experience 2006: State medical board says any doctor who participates in a lethal injection will lose their license to practice medicine. State law requires a doctor s participation. Law changed in 2012, the Restoring Proper Justice Act not only did away with the protections in the 2009 Racial Justice Act, but it also eliminated the requirement for a doctor to participate. Under the new law, anyone with EMT training can do so. So it s clear that political leaders do not feel that protecting the condemned from the possibility of painful death is something that they care about. On the contrary! Baumgartner, POLI 203, Spring 2025 9
NC (Cont.) No executions since 2006 Currently tied up litigation related to the 2009 Racial Justice Act (more on that later this semester). If and when that gets resolved, there is still no approved and tested method of execution. If and when a death warrant is issued, lawyers will litigate the legality of a lethal injection protocol that involves no doctors. Who knows what the courts will decide. NC s only legal method of execution is lethal injection. Other states have responded to this by allowing other methods Baumgartner, POLI 203, Spring 2025 10
The War of the Currents Let s dive into the period around 1885 to 1910 for a few minutes. Why? Because it illustrates the strange politics of the death penalty, and the never-ending search for the perfect and humane method of causing the extinguishment of life . After all, legal executions are not supposed to be torture. The inmate was sentenced to die, not to be tortured in the process. The process should cause no more pain than that required for the mere extinguishment of life (see In re Kemmler, 136 U.S. 436, 443 (1890). Baumgartner, POLI 203, Spring 2025 11
Westinghouse and Edison No standard, AC or DC, huge commercial competition Edison losing the battle of the currents He promotes Westinghouse s system as the ideal way to kill people. Hopes this will discredit the rival and associate Westinghouse s system with danger. Guarantees to lawmakers that it will kill in the 10 thousandth part of a second Who is to argue, and they adopt it. First electrocution in 1890, terrible botch. (look up William Kemmler) Baumgartner, POLI 203, Spring 2025 12
U.S. Technology in 1880 European countries were world leaders Houses heated and lit with fires dangerous Edison perfected the light bulb in 1879 However, no electricity distribution system Baumgartner, POLI 203, Spring 2025 13
Edisons technical downfall Could transmit DC only about a mile, so he must build many power stations near his customers. With AC, Tesla could place one power station 100 miles from many customers. Baumgartner, POLI 203, Spring 2025 14
Players in this drama, team DC Thomas Edison famous American inventor JP Morgan, Wall Street industrialist who funds Edison Baumgartner, POLI 203, Spring 2025 15
Players, team AC George Westinghouse Wealthy from train air brake, funds Tesla Nikola Tesla Serbian engineer Baumgartner, POLI 203, Spring 2025 16
Edison had the inferior product And it cannot be fixed, so: Attack the competition Promote AC as the electricity of death Hires engineer Hubert P. Brown Presents media shows in which Brown electrocutes animals with AC. Cats, dogs, sheep, horses, then an elephant! All this to show that AC is inherently dangerous. By default, then DC would win the competition, and they would all be wealthy! Baumgartner, POLI 203, Spring 2025 17
Topsy, retired circus elephant Jan 4, 1903, in Coney Island, NY Killed with AC in front of invited media Baumgartner, POLI 203, Spring 2025 18
New York state commission, 1886 Searched for new method of execution, more humane than hanging Chair: Elbridge Gerry, a New York City attorney and prominent citizen. Gerry s grandfather had been the first Governor of Massachusetts and the 5th US Vice President from 1813 to 1814. Edison Electric built the first chair, and they designed an AC chair, hoping to link the system to Westinghouse s technology. Baumgartner, POLI 203, Spring 2025 19
The Gerry Commission Reading their report is even more depressing than taking this class! They went through all the historical practices known to human history. Finally, they settled on using the magnificent new technology of electric power, to generate something unlike anything previously ever experienced. Edison personally guaranteed that it would kill instantly, painlessly. less than 1 / 10,000thof a second New York state went on to use the chair more than 600 times before 1965. Baumgartner, POLI 203, Spring 2025 20
Contributions of the Gerry family to US history Elbridge Gerry: The original 1821 Gerrymander. Later VP of the US. Elbridge Gerry (Grandson): Chaired the State of New York commission to replace hanging with a more civilized method of execution. The choice: Electrocution Baumgartner, POLI 203, Spring 2025 21
First electric chair execution William Kemmler, Aug 6, 1890 AC passed through him for 17 sec Declared dead Witnesses said he was still breathing Current turned back on, ran for 8 minutes Westinghouse famous quote: They would have done better with an axe! Baumgartner, POLI 203, Spring 2025 22
Please watch a few minutes of a film Google youtube Tesla Master of Lightning It should take you here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oj-bDe84C0A Go to the 18 minute mark and watch for 5 minutes. Gives an idea of the scope of the competition, and the stakes. Stakes were very high! Edison needed to beat Westinghouse. The death penalty was one of his strategies. Yet we ended up with the electric chair any way Baumgartner, POLI 203, Spring 2025 23
Now you know Now you know why I m ashamed I went to Edison Elementary School. The school was fine (fantastic, actually!). It was right down the street. It had a baseball field we could use after school. But heck, what a person to memorialize Baumgartner, POLI 203, Spring 2025 24
