Watch: Myth #7 - Executions are humane

MYTH

Executions are humane. The process is painless and orderly.

FACT

There is no decent way to kill a prisoner. Hanging, stoning, beheading and electrocuting all constitute cruel, inhumane and degrading punishment.

“Six of my clients have been executed. Two were by gas chamber, two by electric chair and two by lethal injection.  Executions are disgusting. Of course, as a witness you don’t see everything, they cover the face of the condemned with a hood or they are paralysed by chemicals but you know that they suffer terribly.” -Clive Stafford Smith

Watch the testimony of former Florida warden

• Lethal injection

The prisoner is strapped to a gurney and injected with a barbiturate which knocks them out.  This is followed by pancuronium, a paralytic.  It is then topped with potassium chloride, stopping the heart.  Lethal injection was introduced as a more “humane” way of killing, but all too often it has gone wrong.  Romell Broom even walked away from his execution still alive after repeated failed attempts to locate a suitable vein.

If the dose of barbiturate is not sufficiently concentrated or the IV is not inserted properly, the prisoner remains awake, able to feel pain but frozen in silence due to the paralytic effect of the pancuronium.  He suffocates slowly until the potassium chloride shocks the heart so severely it stops beating.  If the prisoner remains conscious at this point the pain is excruciating.  On average, prisoners suffocate for 15 minutes before dying.  It was reported in one case that it took up to 34 minutes until the condemned died.

• The electric chair

The electric chair is infamous for terribly botched executions, requiring multiple jolts before ending the prisoner's life.  Clive Stafford Smith has attended such executions.  He says:

"When the executioner throws the switch that sends the current through the body, the prisoner cringes from torture, his flesh swells and his skin stretches to the point of breaking. He defecates, he urinates, his tongue swells and his eyes pop out. In some cases, the eyeballs rest on the cheeks of the condemned. His flesh is burned and smells of cooked meat. When the autopsy is performed the liver is so hot it cannot be touched by the human hand."

Not convinced?  Listen to the botched execution of Alpha Otis O’Daniel Stephens, killed by electric chair.

• The gas chamber 

The gas chamber was invented during the First World War.  The Nazis used gas chambers to carry out their agenda of genocide.  It is still the method of choice for execution in 5 US states.

The prisoner is placed in the gas chamber and strapped to a chair, the door is sealed.  When the warden gives the signal, the executioner, in a separate room, pulls the lever, turning cyanide into liquid. This causes a chemical reaction releasing hydrogen cyanide gas.  The gas rises through holes in the chair where the prisoner sits.  Prisoners are advised to take deep breaths after the gas is released, told this will considerably shorten their suffering.  Imagine forcing yourself to deeply inhale the substance you know will kill you, but the deeper you breathe, the less you will suffer.

Reports from the chamber include this horrifying testimony:

"At first there is evidence of extreme horror, pain, and strangling. The eyes pop, the skin turns purple and the victim begins to drool."

• Hanging

To work, the rope used in the hanging must be properly adjusted to the weight of the condemned. If not done correctly, the executed may be violently decapitated, as seen in the execution of Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti, Saddam Hussein’s younger half-brother. On the other hand, the prisoner may suffer a slow death lasting 10-20 minutes.

• Executions by shooting 

Shooting does not guarantee instant death.  An interview with Thailand's last executioner (by shooting):

Question: "Has he missed?"

Executioner: "They all died. But not all of them die instantly. I needed to keep shooting for 3 to 5 minutes for some of them to die."

The Malaysian star, Chavoret Chauboon, in an interview with Philip Golingai, commented:

"If the escort did not tie the convict to the cross tightly, the convict could wriggle. And when the bullets missed his heart there would be lots of agonizing screams."

• Stoning and beheading  

During a stoning, men are buried in a hole to the waist whilst women are buried up to the shoulders. The public hurls stones of a certain size at the convicted, often resulting in a slow death.   The condemned may be spared their life if they can free themselves from the hole.  

A man describes a beheading in Riyadh:

"At 9 a.m., the executioner gently lowers the blade to jab at the condemned’s neck, which jerks the prisoner’s body to attention. Then the real blow: the blade is drawn high up, and then swung back down. It cleaves skin, muscle, and bone with a hollow, echoing thud. A lurid crimson waterfall chases the head to the granite with the sound of a wet rag being wrung out over a stainless steel sink. The body sways forward, snaps up, and slumps off to the right."

Michael Portillo believes he has found a painless and humane way of killing -- nitrogen gas.  Portilla reported:

"...that nitrogen could do the job in about 15 seconds, and the prisoner would not feel pain - on the contrary he would feel euphoric, like being drunk."

However, in some countries like America the public feels that executions are meant to be painful.

For those awaiting execution, the mental anguish they suffer is in breach of their right not to experience torture, inhuman or degrading treatment.  Such mental anguish has become so common on death row that in legal circles it is simply known as “the death row phenomena”. Accordingly, the European Court of Human Rights refused the extradition of a German national to the US.  The UK's Privy Council has also decided that executing an individual “after holding [them] in an agony of suspense” for more than five years would be inhuman and degrading.

In Japan, 97 inmates currently await death by hanging.  Each day they wait for execution, facing a sentence that could be enforced at only a few hours' notice. Some live like this year after year, sometimes for decades, not knowing when they will be executed.  This can lead to the development of serious mental disorders.

Back to Ten myths and facts about the death penalty