All articles tagged with #execution methods
Tennessee is scheduled to execute Christa Gail Pike, the only woman on the state's death row, in 2026, marking a rare instance of female execution in the U.S. The case highlights evolving attitudes towards capital punishment, especially for women, and Pike's complex legal history involving mental health issues and her age at sentencing.
South Carolina is seeking to resume executions using the electric chair and firing squad, arguing that instantaneous or painless death is not mandated. Lawyers for death row inmates are challenging the constitutionality of these methods, as well as the secrecy surrounding the new lethal injection drug and protocol. The state's death chamber, unused for nearly 13 years due to a lack of lethal injection drugs, could become active again if the Supreme Court allows executions to restart. The controversy highlights the nationwide shortage of lethal injection drugs and the addition of new execution methods in other states, such as nitrogen hypoxia in Alabama.
Alabama is set to execute Kenneth Eugene Smith using nitrogen hypoxia, a new method of capital punishment, after previous attempts at lethal injection failed. The U.S. has introduced six official execution methods, each with its own challenges and ethical concerns. The involvement of medical professionals in executions raises ethical and legal issues, and the repeated failures of execution methods have led to a continuous search for a more humane approach. Experts are skeptical that nitrogen hypoxia will solve the problems plaguing capital punishment in the U.S.