![]() This process continues until the prisoner is dead. The doctors wait a few seconds for the body to cool down and then check to see if the prisoner’s heart is still beating. The current surges and is then turned off, at which time the body is seen to relax. A jolt of between 5 volts, which lasts for about 30 seconds, is given. After the execution team has withdrawn to the observation room, the warden signals the executioner, who pulls a handle to connect the power supply. An additional electrode is moistened with conductive jelly (Electro-Creme) and attached to a portion of the prisoner’s leg that has been shaved to reduce resistance to electricity. The sponge must not be too wet or the saline short-circuits the electric current, and not too dry, as it would then have a very high resistance. A metal skullcap-shaped electrode is attached to the scalp and forehead over a sponge moistened with saline. For execution by the electric chair, the person is usually shaved and strapped to a chair with belts that cross his chest, groin, legs, and arms. Electrocution was the sole method in Nebraska until the State Supreme Court ruled the method unconstitutional in February 2008. Today, electrocution is not used as the sole method of execution in any state. Soon, other states adopted this execution method. Seeking a more humane method of execution than hanging, New York built the first electric chair in 1888 and executed William Kemmler in 1890. Many prisoners have damaged veins resulting from intravenous drug use and it is sometimes difficult to find a usable vein, resulting in long delays while the prisoner remains strapped to the gurney. ![]() If a member of the execution team injects the drugs into a muscle instead of a vein, or if the needle becomes clogged, extreme pain can result. This lack of medical participation can be problematic because often injections are performed by inexperienced technicians or orderlies. However, a doctor will certify the prisoner is dead. Medical ethics preclude doctors from participating in executions. Death results from anesthetic overdose and respiratory and cardiac arrest while the condemned person is unconscious. Finally, the flow of potassium chloride stops the heart. Next, a paralytic drug, typically vecuronium bromide or pancuronium bromide, is injected, which paralyzes the entire muscle system and stops the prisoner’s breathing. In the multi-drug executions, states start with a sedative, previously sodium thiopental but more recently drugs such as midazolam, which is supposed to put the prisoner to sleep. In the one-drug executions, the prisoner is injected with an overdose of pentobarbital. The process then differs depending upon whether the state uses a single drug or multi-drug protocol. Then, at the warden’s signal, a curtain is raised exposing the prisoner to the witnesses in an adjoining room. The first is a harmless saline solution that is started immediately. Long tubes connect the needle through a hole in a cement block wall to several intravenous drips. Two needles (one is a back-up) are then inserted into usable veins, usually in the prisoner’s arms. When this method is used, the condemned person is usually bound to a gurney and a member of the execution team positions several heart monitors on this skin. Today, every state that has the death penalty authorizes execution by lethal injection. In 1977, Oklahoma became the first state to adopt lethal injection as a means of execution, though it would be five more years until Charles Brooks would become the first person executed by lethal injection in Texas on December 2, 1982.
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