Experts share the most painful ways to be executed amid death row inmate choosing method that hasn't been used in 15 years
Gerrard Kaonga
Featured Image Credit: Mike Simons/Getty Images
Experts have weighed in on some of the most popular execution methods used in the US despite how painful they can be.
While you might assume that death row is something of the past, 27 states out of 50 still allow the death penalty.
Some methods are more painful than others, and have caused controversy because of this.
There are several execution methods performed in the US, but the vast majority have been through lethal injection. This involves a three-drug concoction that is intended to make the individual unconscious before they suffer a heart attack.
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However, issues have arisen in the past resulting in lengthy execution periods or even failed attempts, meaning the inmate must be ‘executed again’ at a later date.
Most interestingly, some states permit inmates to make a choice on the execution method.
For Brad Sigmon, who was executed earlier this year in South Carolina in March, he chose death by firing squad out of a choice of electric chair and lethal injection.
Sigmon's attorney Gerald 'Bo' King said that the choice his client faced was ultimately 'impossible' but 'unless he elected lethal injection or the firing squad, he would die in South Carolina's ancient electric chair, which would burn and cook him alive'.
However, according to a Mail Online report, experts have named death by firing squad to be one of the most painful ways to be executed.
In this execution scenario, the inmate is strapped to a chair with a target with a red bullseye pinned to their chest for three officers to fire at.
Back in 2022, a South Carolina court declared that a firing squad could be considered ‘torture’ because it damages an inmate's heart and its surrounding bone and tissue.
Experts have added that it would likely be a very painful experience until the individual loses consciousness.
However, defenders of the method of execution have said a person would lose consciousness very quickly.
Dr James Williams, an emergency room physician in Texas and courtroom expert on firing squad executions, spoke to The Marshall Project and said: “There is a lot of evidence that the near-instant loss of blood pressure means no blood gets to the brainstem, and there is a rapid loss of consciousness.”
He went on to compare it to a chokehold which can cause loss of consciousness in as little as three to five seconds.