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07.12.

1982: Would you Prefer Execution by Lethal Injection or the Electric Chair?

1982: Would you Prefer Execution by Lethal Injection or the Electric Chair?
Photo Credit To http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:SQ_Lethal_Injection_Room.jpg

Story Highlights

  • historical event: Execution by lethal injection was introduced on this day in 1982 in the United States. Until then, the electric chair was used, which is associated with many stories about burning the flesh of victims.

The first execution in the United States using the new method – lethal injection – was performed on this day. It happened in Texas when Charles Brooks, convicted of murder that he committed together with Woody Loudres, was executed. It is not known which of the two fired the shot, but Loudres saved himself from death by revealing how the murder was committed. He received 40 years in prison, while Brooks was sentenced to death. Even the prosecutor pleaded that Brook’s death sentence be commuted, because no one knew for sure that he fired the shot. However, the State Board of Pardons and Paroles recommended that the execution should proceed. Brooks’s last meal consisted of a T-bone steak (the short loin and the tenderloin separated by a T-shaped bone), french fries, ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, biscuits, peach cobbler, and iced tea. The execution by lethal injection is considered more humane than the electric chair, which was used prior to it. First, a convict is injected with an agent that renders him unconscious, then with an agent that paralyzes the respiratory muscles, and finally with one that stops the heart.



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