Horrifically botched executions. States turning to secretive sources for drugs. Executions accidentally carried out using the wrong medication. Lethal injection is the very definition of “cruel and unusual.”
The first executions in North Carolina were carried out with hand-tied nooses before crowds of cheering picnickers. But as the 20th century dawned, North Carolina sought its place in a modernizing world that found the spectacle of public executions distasteful. Ever since, the state has been searching for a more polite way to kill people.
First, executions were moved to an electric chair inside Raleigh’s Central Prison. After people caught fire and died in agony, North Carolina built its first gas chamber. When that too led to torturous executions, as well as the risk of toxic leaks, the state moved to lethal injection in the 1980s. Yet, the appearance of a sanitized medical procedure quickly crumbled.
“Instead of the quiet death I expected, Willie began convulsing,” defense attorney Cynthia Adcock said after witnessing the 2001 execution of Willie Fisher. “The convulsing was so extreme that Willie’s cousin jumped up screaming.” Since North Carolina’s last execution in 2006, lethal injection has only become more cruel and unusual. In 2015, North Carolina passed laws making suppliers of execution drugs secret and ensuring that medical professionals assisting executions cannot be disciplined for violating their Hippocratic Oath.
No matter the method, we must end the barbaric practice of execution.
Right now in North Carolina:
- In North Carolina, 41 of the 43 people executed in the death penalty’s modern era died by lethal injection.
- Executions ceased in North Carolina in 2006, after the state was sued for failing to have doctors present at executions, as the law required.
- The state has since passed laws allowing executions to proceed without doctors and allowing the state to keep the suppliers of execution drugs secret. Despite these attempts to clear the way for executions, the process remains mired in litigation.
