Lethal Injection

Lethal Injection

Considered to be the most humane form of capital punishment, lethal injection is a commonly used method of execution in China, Guatemala, the Philippines, the United Arab Emirates, and the United States.

As of 2018, 31 states in America authorize death by lethal injection, which has been used widely since the late 1970s. This execution method is thought to be more efficient than the antiquated electric chair and gas chamber options - both of which are still legal, albeit in only a handful of states. 

On August 14, 2018, US state Nebraska executed Carey Dean Moore, a man who shot two cab drivers 40 years prior; he was one of the country's longest-serving death row prisoners.

Nebraska lawmakers abolished the death penalty in 2015, but Republican Governor Pete Ricketts had it restored in 2016. The state used an unprecedented combination of four lethal drugs to terminate Moore, including fentanyl. It was the state's first lethal injection and its first implemented death penalty since 1997.

While in the United States ethical debates and drug shortages stall planned executions, China has streamlined the process. As the world leader in capital punishment, China uses mobile police buses to carry out sentences - a process reminiscent of the "gas wagons" used in Occupied Germany.

These ambulance-like vehicles offer quick on-the-go executions. This expedited process also allows for more efficient organ donations - 65 percent of organ transplants in China come from executed prisoners, a reportedly involuntary donation.