A woman survived lethal injection. Here’s how executions work across the US

The bungled execution of a woman in Tennessee has rekindled debate over execution methods in the U.S., highlighting issues prevalent across various states.

Lethal injection continues to be the most common method, despite frequent challenges in drug procurement and noted failures during executions.

The introduction of new methods like nitrogen inhalation, despite being linked to significant problems, and the use of firing squads in some states, underline persistent ethical and procedural concerns.

Calls for greater transparency and reevaluation of these methods continue, as highlighted by advocacy groups, amid concerns for both the condemned and execution team members.

WASHINGTON, Oct 2 — The unprecedented botched execution of a woman in Tennessee has reignited the debate over execution methods in the United States — which varies from lethal injection to firing squads.

Methods used in the US

Methods vary by state. States carry out the vast majority of executions, while federal executions are rare.

Lethal injection, authorised in 28 states and at the federal level, remains by far the most common execution method since the death penalty was reinstated in the United States in 1976.

Of the 47 executions carried out in 2025, 39 were by lethal injection.

Five others were by nitrogen inhalation, a method first used anywhere in the world in the southern state of Alabama in 2024 and likened by UN experts to a form of “torture.”

Three were by firing squad in South Carolina, marking the first use of that method in the United States since 2010.

But some states have struggled to obtain the necessary drugs from pharmaceutical companies reluctant to be associated with capital punishment.

This was the case, for example, in South Carolina, Utah and Indiana, which resumed executions in 2024 after suspending them for more than a decade for this reason.

In terms of frequency, electrocution and gas inhalation are, respectively, most common, each authorised in nine states, followed by firing squads, a method provided for in five states.

A litany of botched executions

No execution method is immune to the risk of spectacular failure.

In Alabama in 1983, John Evans’s leg caught fire after the first electric shock, while smoke rose from his hood and the smell of burning flesh began to fill the room. It took three shocks in all before the condemned man’s heart stopped beating.

In the northern state of Ohio in 2009, Romell Broom endured two hours of attempts by three members of the state’s execution team, who stuck needles into his arms, hands and legs 18 times in an effort to administer the lethal injection.

The first condemned prisoner to survive an execution attempt in the United States since 1946, he ultimately died of Covid-19 in his cell in December 2020.

Even firing squads, supposedly a more decisive method, present difficulties, Laura Porter, director of a coalition of US organisations campaigning to abolish the death penalty, told AFP.

During Mikal Mahdi’s execution in South Carolina in 2025, the shooters, “missed the target of the heart, and so it took longer for [him] to die,” she said, citing the autopsy findings.

Nitrogen inhalation was used “with severe, severe problems in Alabama,” and “it’s temporarily on hold,” she said.

“I don’t believe that there is a perfect way to kill people,” Porter said.

“Participating in execution is incredibly stressful and harmful to corrections officers,” she added.

Botched execution consequences

US states generally respond to the most shocking failures by imposing a moratorium to revise their execution protocols or by introducing new execution methods.

Tennessee imposed a moratorium in 2022 before resuming executions by lethal injection in 2025 under a revised protocol.

Alabama tried nitrogen inhalation in January 2024 following a botched lethal injection execution in November 2022.

But Porter said no lasting solution would be possible until the secrecy surrounding executions was lifted.

“When there are problems with protocols, or when there are problems with the drugs, or there are problems with the competency of the execution team, it is very, very difficult to obtain any information until after the problem has happened because we are given no information about the execution process,” she said. — AFP

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田纳西州一名女性被错误处决，再次引发了美国关于死刑执行方式的辩论，凸显了各州普遍存在的问题。

尽管在药物获取方面经常面临挑战，而且在执行死刑过程中也出现过失败案例，但注射死刑仍然是最常见的死刑方式。

尽管引入氮气吸入等新方法与一些重大问题有关，而且一些州还使用枪决，但这仍然凸显了持续存在的伦理和程序问题。

倡导团体强调，各方继续呼吁提高透明度并重新评估这些方法，同时关注被判刑者和行刑队成员的安全。

华盛顿，10 月 2 日——田纳西州一名女性的死刑执行失败，史无前例，再次引发了美国关于死刑执行方式的辩论——死刑执行方式从注射死刑到枪决不等。

美国使用的方法

各州执行死刑的方式不尽相同。绝大多数死刑由各州执行，联邦死刑则极为罕见。

注射死刑在美国28个州和联邦层面均获得授权，自1976年美国恢复死刑以来，注射死刑仍然是最常见的死刑执行方式。

2025 年执行的 47 例死刑中，有 39 例是注射死刑。

另有五人死于氮气吸入，这种方法于 2024 年首次在世界范围内用于美国南部阿拉巴马州，联合国专家将其比作一种“酷刑”。

其中三人是在南卡罗来纳州被枪决的，这是自 2010 年以来美国首次使用这种方法。

但一些州很难从不愿与死刑扯上关系的制药公司那里获得必要的药物。

例如，南卡罗来纳州、犹他州和印第安纳州就出现了这种情况，这些州因上述原因暂停执行死刑十多年后，于 2024 年恢复了死刑。

就频率而言，电刑和吸入毒气分别是最常见的死刑方式，各有九个州授权使用这两种方式；其次是枪决，有五个州规定了这种死刑方式。

一系列失败的处决

任何执行方法都无法避免出现重大失败的风险。

1983年，在阿拉巴马州，约翰·埃文斯在第一次电击后腿部着火，浓烟从他的兜帽中升起，烧焦的肉味弥漫了整个房间。这名死刑犯总共遭受了三次电击，心脏才停止跳动。

2009 年，在俄亥俄州北部，罗梅尔·布鲁姆 (Romell Broom) 经历了两个小时的行刑尝试，该州的三名死刑执行队员将针头扎入他的手臂、手和腿 18 次，试图执行致命注射。

他是自 1946 年以来美国第一个在死刑执行中幸存下来的死刑犯，最终于 2020 年 12 月在狱中死于新冠肺炎。

劳拉·波特是致力于废除死刑的美国组织联盟的负责人，她告诉法新社，即使是被认为更果断的行刑队也存在困难。

她援引尸检结果称，在2025年米卡尔·马赫迪于南卡罗来纳州被执行死刑时，枪手“没有击中心脏目标，因此他死亡的时间更长”。

她说，氮气吸入疗法在阿拉巴马州“造成了非常严重的问题”，目前“已暂时停止使用”。

“我不认为存在完美的杀人方法，”波特说。

她补充说：“参与执行死刑对狱警来说压力巨大，而且有害。”

执行失败的后果

美国各州通常会通过暂停执行死刑来修改死刑执行程序或引入新的死刑执行方法来应对最令人震惊的失败案例。

田纳西州于 2022 年暂停执行注射死刑，并于 2025 年根据修订后的方案恢复执行注射死刑。

阿拉巴马州在 2022 年 11 月的一次注射死刑失败后，于 2024 年 1 月尝试了氮气吸入法。

但波特表示，除非解除死刑执行的保密措施，否则不可能找到持久的解决方案。

“当程序出现问题、药物出现问题或执行团队能力出现问题时，我们很难在问题发生之前获得任何信息，因为我们对执行过程一无所知，”她说道。——法新社

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