The constitutional prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment has shaped legal discourse around failed executions, but courts have not stopped states from attempting to execute the same person again.
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The constitutional prohibition of ‘cruel and unusual punishment’ has shaped legal discourse around failed executions, but courts have not stopped states from attempting to execute the same man again.
South Carolina has had trouble securing enough lethal injection drugs for executions. So it has turned to an old form of killing: the firing squad, last used in the Civil War.
The promised benefits of lethal injection – a quick, painless death – have never come true. There’s not even agreement about which drugs are best for executions.
Many recent executions in the US by lethal injections have resulted in prolonged suffering before death. A historian asks: Could the guillotine be a preferable method?
