An illustration of a deserter being executed by a firing squad at the Federal Camp in Alexandria during the American civil war.
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South Carolina has had trouble securing enough lethal injection drugs for executions. So it has turned to an old form of killing: the firing squad, last used in the Civil War.
The lethal injection chamber at a California prison.
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The promised benefits of lethal injection – a quick, painless death – have never come true. There’s not even agreement about which drugs are best for executions.
Could using the guillotine be more humane than execution by lethal injection?
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Many recent executions in the US by lethal injections have resulted in prolonged suffering before death. A historian asks: Could the guillotine be a preferable method?