Health Professionals and Lethal Injection Execution in the United States

When the state of Texas executed Charlie Brooks, Jr. with an overdose of drugs in 1982, it was the first time that a prison medical staff was utilized to carry out a death sentence in the United States. Because for many [End Page 382] Americans, the focus of the debate regarding the death penalty was simpl382y that the Eighth Amendment required that an "execution be imposed more humanely than it had in the past," 2 this lethal injection was viewed by some as a victory. Many abolitionists, however, feared that the use of simple injection as a method of execution could make the death penalty more palatable to juries 3 and easier for the public to accept, 4 which would increase the incidence of capital punishment. Current statistics illustrate that such fears and predictions regarding the far-reaching implications of this new "humane" method of execution were well-founded. Of the 143 executions from 1976 to 1990, only fifty-four, or roughly 38 percent, were by lethal injection. 5 In contrast, in the next ten years, 606 people were executed. Lethal injection was the method used in 530, or about 87 percent, of these cases. 6 To date, all executions in 2002 have been by lethal injection. 7