How does execution by electrocution work

Because of a resistance by drug manufacturers to provide the drugs typically used in lethal injections, some states now allow the use of alternative methods if lethal injection cannot be performed. Controversies surrounding the method to be used have delayed executions in many states, contributing to an overall decline in the use of the death penalty. Click on the state to obtain specific information about the methods authorized.

Military, U. Lethal injection could only still apply if someone capitally charged before July 1, is sentenced to death. To find the drug protocols used by states, see State-by-State Lethal Injection. This proved impossible because the gas leaked from his cell, so the gas chamber was constructed.

A federal court in California found this method to be cruel and unusual punishment. For execution by this method, the condemned person is strapped to a chair in an airtight chamber. Below the chair rests a pail of sulfuric acid. A long stethoscope is typically affixed to the inmate so that a doctor outside the chamber can pronounce death.

Once everyone has left the chamber, the room is sealed. The warden then gives a signal to the executioner who flicks a lever that releases crystals of sodium cyanide into the pail. This causes a chemical reaction that releases hydrogen cyanide gas. Most prisoners, however, try to hold their breath, and some struggle. The inmate does not lose consciousness immediately. The eyes pop. The skin turns purple and the victim begins to drool.

Witnesses said he nodded his head for several minutes. About a half an hour later, orderlies enter the chamber, wearing gas masks and rubber gloves. As of April 17, , Oklahoma introduced death by nitrogen gas as an alternative to lethal injection if the necessary drugs cannot be found or if that method is found unconstitutional. Nitrogen is a naturally occurring gas in the atmosphere, and death would be caused by forcing the inmate to breathe only nitrogen, thereby depriving him or her of oxygen.

On March 23, , firing squad was reauthorized in Utah as a viable method of execution if, and only if the state was unable to obtain the drugs necessary to carry out a lethal injection execution. Prior to this reauthorization, firing squad was only a method of execution in Utah if chosen by an inmate before lethal injection became the sole means of execution.

The most recent execution by this method was that of Ronnie Gardner. By his own choosing, Gardner was executed by firing squad in Utah on June 17, For execution by this method, the inmate is typically bound to a chair with leather straps across his waist and head, in front of an oval-shaped canvas wall. Standing in an enclosure 20 feet away, five shooters are armed with.

One of the shooters is given blank rounds. Each of the shooters aims his rifle through a slot in the canvas and fires at the inmate. The person shot loses consciousness when shock causes a fall in the supply of blood to the brain. In Philadelphia, delegates to the Constitutional Convention begin debating the first complete draft of the proposed Constitution of the United States.

The Articles of Confederation, ratified several months before the British surrender at Yorktown in , provided for a loose Andy Warhol, one of the most influential artists of the latter part of the 20th century, is born Andrew Warhola in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

A frail and diminutive man with a shock of silver-blond hair, Warhol was a major pioneer of the pop art movement of the s but later The U. Army announces that Colonel Robert B. Rheault, Commander of the Fifth Special Forces Group in Vietnam, and seven other Green Berets have been charged with premeditated murder and conspiracy to commit murder in the summary execution of a Vietnamese national, Thai Khac Sign up now to learn about This Day in History straight from your inbox.

On August 6, , on her second attempt, year-old Gertrude Ederle becomes the first woman to swim the 21 miles from Dover, England, to Cape Griz-Nez across the English Channel, which separates Great Britain from the northwestern tip of France.

Ederle was born to German The bill made it illegal to impose restrictions on federal, state and local elections that were designed to deny the vote to Black people. At age 15, Ball went to New York City to attend drama school and become an actress. However, she received little encouragement and was