Here’s how people on death row meet their ends in each state

Most states, including Alabama, Arkansas, California, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Wyoming and the U.S. Military and Government use lethal injection as the primary method of execution.

The way lethal injection works in each state differs slightly, with some like Georgia using the one-drug protocol and other states using a three-drug protocol. The one-drug protocol uses Pentobarbital, while the three-drug protocol uses Midazolam, Rocuronium bromide and Potassium chloride.

Electrocution

South Carolina is the only state in which electrocution is the default method of execution.

The other eight states that allow executions through electrocution are Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma and Tennessee, however, lethal injection is the default method.

A prisoner can choose to be executed through electrocution only in Alabama and Florida, but the prisoner must choose and deliver in writing their choice to the warden within 30 days of the issuing of the decision by the respective state’s Supreme Court affirming the death sentence.

In Arkansas, electrocution only takes place if lethal injection is “invalidated by a final and unappealable court order,” according to state law. Mississippi and Oklahoma law are similar to Arkansas, but lethal gas also needs to be ruled unconstitutional or, along with lethal injection, unavailable for electrocution to take place.

Kentucky prisoners on death row who were convicted before March 31, 1998 may choose lethal injection or electrocution, but if no choice is made at least 20 days before the scheduled execution, lethal injection is the default method. In Tennessee, death row inmates who committed the offense before December 31, 1998 can select to be executed through electrocution by written waiver.

Lethal gas

Only eight states - Alabama, Arizona, California, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma and Wyoming - allow lethal gas as a method of execution, but all eight have lethal injection as their default method.

Alabama and California allow the inmate to choose lethal gas as the execution method. Arizona allows inmates who have been sentenced before November 15, 1992 to choose between lethal gas or lethal injection. In Missouri, it is unclear based on state law whether the inmate or Director of the Missouri Department of Corrections decides the method.

Mississippi, Oklahoma and Wyoming authorize the use of lethal gas as a method of execution if lethal injection is ruled to be unconstitutional.

In Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi and Oklahoma, only nitrogen hypoxia has been specifically authorized for executions, but only Alabama has issued a protocol on its use and actually performed an execution. The other states - Arizona, California, Missouri and Wyoming - do not list a specific gas to use.

According to protocol, Alabama death row inmates who select a lethal gas execution are placed on a gurney before a mask is placed and adjusted on the inmate’s face and the nitrogen hypoxia valve is opened.

Firing Squad

On Friday, Brad Sigmon, convicted in South Carolina of killing his ex-girlfriend’s parents in 2001, is set to be the first person in the United States to be executed by firing squad in 15 years.

South Carolina is among five states - Mississippi, Oklahoma, Utah and Idaho - which allow firing squad as a method of execution but it’s not the default method in any of those states. In Idaho, lawmakers passed a bill this month that would make firing squads the primary method of execution there, the Associated Press reported.

A federal judge in Atlanta ruled Michal Nance, a Georgia death row inmate, cannot be executed by firing squad.

Credit: AP

Credit: AP

Since 1608, at least 144 civilian prisoners have been executed by shooting in America, nearly all in Utah, according to AP, with two current death row inmates in Utah requesting a firing squad execution.

The execution is conducted with the prisoner strapped to a metal chair that sits on top of a catch basin. Three state Corrections Department volunteers fire rifles, using a bullet which is designed to break apart on impact, from a wall opening not visible to witnesses that is 15 feet away from the prisoner, according to the AP.

States that abolished death penalty

Only 23 states have abolished the death penalty. Michigan, Wisconsin and Maine abolished the death penalty in the 1800s, but Michigan retained it for treason until 1963. Between 1911 and 1984, death penalty was abolished in nine states - Minnesota (1911), Hawaii (1948), Alaska (1957), Vermont (1964), Iowa (1965), West Virginia (1965), North Dakota (1973), Massachusetts (1984) and Rhode Island (1984). In Vermont, it was retained for treason until 1972.

New Jersey and New York abolished it in 2007, New Mexico in 2009, Illinois in 2011, Connecticut in 2012, Maryland in 2013, Delaware in 2016 and Washington in 2018.

More recently, Colorado in 2020 and Virginia in 2021 abolished the death penalty.

In New Hampshire, although the death penalty was abolished in 2019 for new cases, the repeal is not applied retroactively, so the lone prisoner on death row still faces possible execution.

Death penalties can still take place in these states if they are convicted in federal court for certain federal crimes.