Updated on 03/22/2023 15:53
Around half of all US states have the death penalty. Most of those sentenced to death are executed by lethal injection. In Idaho there is now an alternative that the civil rights organization ACLU describes as “particularly cruel”.
Those sentenced to death could soon be executed by firing squad in the US state of Idaho. The Senate of the state in the north of the USA passed a corresponding law yesterday, as reported by US media.
Death penalty in the USA: The number of executions is steadily declining
According to the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC), 23 of the 50 states have abolished the death penalty. In US states with the death penalty, lethal injection is the primary method used. Due to a lack of the necessary lethal preparations, executions have repeatedly been postponed in recent years.
A total of 1,387 people have been executed by lethal injection in the United States since 1976. The electric chair was used 163 times. Eleven people were executed in the gas chamber. Three people were either hanged or shot.
According to the DPIC, the number of death sentences carried out has continued to decrease in recent years. It peaked in 1999 with 98 executions. Nine people have been executed in the United States so far in 2023. More than half of those sentenced to death were white (55.6 percent). 34.1 percent were African American and 8.4 percent were Latino.
A trans person was executed in the United States for the first time on Tuesday. Amber McLaughlin died by lethal injection after murdering her friend in 2003. A judge ordered the death penalty after the jury couldn’t agree on a sentence.
Most inmates (690) on death row are in California, according to the DPIC. However, the last time a person was executed here was in 2006. The death penalty has been suspended there by decree for years. It is also currently being suspended in Oregon – there and in Pennsylvania it will soon be completely abolished.
By far the most executions in the US take place in the southern states. Of the 1,387 executions since 1976, the South has accounted for 1,278. Texas tops the list of executions, with 583. Far behind is Oklahoma with 120 executions.
A common argument in favor of the death penalty is that proponents of the death penalty claim that it creates a deterrent effect, thereby reducing homicide rates. However, the DPIC evaluated the annual FBI crime report for over 30 years and found that the South has the highest homicide rate at 6.4 murderers per 100,000 inhabitants.
Idaho clears way for death by shooting
In the current case, the Idaho House of Representatives had approved. It provides for the possibility of execution by firing squad if the chemicals for lethal injection are not available. The text of the law is now with the governor to sign.
According to the Death Penalty Information Center, there have been three executions by firing squad in the United States since 1976, most recently in Utah in 2010. Only the states of Mississippi, Utah, and Oklahoma currently allow firing squads when other methods of execution are unavailable. A corresponding law in South Carolina was challenged and is going through the courts there.
In recent years there have been repeated mishaps and incidents in lethal injection executions. In addition, in 2016, the US pharmaceutical company Pfizer, the last major European and American drug manufacturer, stopped supplying and manufacturing drugs for lethal injection.
Pharmaceutical companies oppose the use of drugs for executions
“Pfizer strictly opposes the use of its products as lethal injections in the execution of the death penalty,” the pharmaceutical company said at the time. More than twenty pharmaceutical companies from Europe and the USA had taken this step before Pfizer, according to a report by the “New York times”.
There is now an alternative to carrying out the death sentence, Attorney General Raúl Labrador told the local newspaper “Idaho Statesman”. He was involved in drafting the text of the law.
The civil rights organization ACLU called the law “appalling”. “A firing squad is particularly cruel.” The violence of such executions leaves lasting scars on everyone involved.
With material from the dpa news agency