Charles Brooks Jr. became the first person in the United States to be executed using lethal injection.
On December 7, 1982, in Huntsville, Texas, Brooks was given a three-drug mixture to end his life: Sodium thiopental (an anesthetic to induce unconsciousness) pancuronium bromide (a paralytic agent to stop muscle movement) and potassium chloride (to stop the heart.)
Brooks had been convicted of the 1976 kidnapping and murder of Fort Worth auto mechanic David Gregory.
Since Brooks’ execution the United States has executed 1,432 individuals by lethal injection. Texas leads the nation in executions by lethal injection, having carried out 593 executions since 1982. But due to shortages of the initial drugs Texas has switched to one execution drug, pentobarbital, a fast-acting barbiturate that induces deep unconsciousness leading to death.
Claiming security concerns, Texas has kept the name of its supplier of pentobarbital secret. Although it’s been reported that the drug is produced at a compound drug manufacturer in the San Antonio area.
While Texas was first to carry out an execution with lethal injection, it was Oklahoma's state medical examiner, Dr. Jay Chapman, who first proposed using pharmaceuticals administered intravenously to carry out the courts’ ultimate sentence. Chapman intended it to be a more humane alternative to existing methods like electrocution, firing squad, hanging and gas chambers.
But in the new book Secrets of the Killing State: The Untold Story of Lethal Injection, author and legal historian Corinna Barrett Lain argues that lethal injection remains a violent means of taking a human life. She cites controversies over botched executions and drug shortages that have raised ethical and legal concerns about its continued use.
Guest:
Corinna Barrett Lain is S. D. Roberts & Sandra Moore Professor of Law at University of Richmond School of Law.
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