Foreword
Lethal injection is by far the most used method of execution in the United States. Seventeen States and the Federal Government authorize lethal injection as the sole method of execution. Twenty other States provide for lethal injection as the primary method. Of the 1,029 executions performed from 1976 through June 2006, 861were by lethal injection, including 375 of the last 378. Recently,however, lethal injection has become controversial, as critics have contendedthat the “three-drug protocol, in which a prisoner is given an anestheticfollowed by a muscle relaxant and a drug to stop the heart lead to executionsthat, while seeming peaceful,…
