The US death penalty survives in 27 states, the federal system and the military. Lethal injection is still the main method, but failures and drug shortages hav…
The Supreme Court ruled the death penalty as then applied was arbitrary and unconstitutional. Hundreds of sentences were voided.
The Court upheld new laws with separate sentencing and guided jury discretion. Utah carried out the first new execution, by firing squad, in January 1977.
States presented it as calmer and more humane than the chair or gas chamber. Within 20 years it was the main method almost everywhere.
The Court upheld Kentucky's drugs. A method fails only if it risks severe pain compared with an available alternative.
The only US maker stopped making the key drug. States switched to substitutes and hid their suppliers behind secrecy laws.
A misplaced IV meant the drugs did not work as planned. Lockett died about 43 minutes after the process began.
Alabama executed Kenneth Smith by making him breathe pure nitrogen. He had survived a failed injection attempt in 2022.
Executions nearly doubled to the most in 15 years, driven mainly by Florida. South Carolina used the firing squad three times.
The Justice Department readopted pentobarbital and added the firing squad, electrocution and gas as federal options.
After a failed injection in 2024, Idaho made the firing squad its primary method. Lethal injection stays as a backup.
Staff gave her two doses of pentobarbital, but she lived. The governor paused executions and the prisons chief resigned.
The Pentagon said Nidal Hasan's firing-squad execution would be broadcast. Lawmakers of both parties objected; the decision is not final.
A 1947 ruling allowed a second attempt. Courts have not decided Pike's case, and Tennessee has paused executions.
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