What problems have there been with the lethal injection?

Question

i have read there has been issues i just wondered what they were?.. also who picks what punishment is used for each state?.. and how many states have the death penalty? im from england so i dont know anything about it ...thanks

Answer 1

The best source on the death penalty system in the US is at

www.deathpenaltyinfo.org.  This website will provide answers to all your questions, and it is very user friendly.

Just one fact:

36 states allow it but few execute anyone.

The 36 states are:

Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado,

Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana,

Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland,

Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada,

New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio,

Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina,

South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia,

Washington, Wyoming

In 2006-7, most states carried out no more than 1 execution:

Alabama 4, Arizona 1, California 1, Florida 4, Georgia 1, Indiana 3, Mississippi 1, Montana 1, North Carolina 4, Nevada 1, Ohio 7, Oklahoma 7, South Carolina 2, South Dakota 1, Tennessee 3, Texas 50, Virginia 4,

The other 33 states carried out no executions at all.

Answer 2

With lethal injection, 3 drugs are given.  An over dose of barbituate, which is a narcotic, then an over dose of a paralytic, and then an over dose of potasium.  The arguement is that even though the over dose of the first two agents are enough to kill a person before the potassium, that the first barbituate can wear off before they die.  So the person is left paralyzed, but awake and in extreme pain from the potassium.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lethal_inje...

Wiki tells about it better

I dont know the rest of your questions, but here is wiki on the death penalty

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_penal...