On August 24, 53-year-old Mark Asay became the first white man in Florida to be executed for the murder of a black man since the death penalty was reinstated in the U.S. in 1976. His execution also marked another first: the lethal injection was prepared using a new drug as part of the three-drug cocktail.
Barring a brief suspension in the early 1970s, the U.S. has been relentless in sending convicts to death row, and is behind only China, Iran, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia in the total number of executions each year. China does not disclose the numbers, but Amnesty International reports that they are in thousands. The U.S. has executed 20 in 2016 and 17 so far in 2017.
From a peak of 98 executions in 1999, the numbers are coming down, but the racial undertones of the U.S.’s criminal justice system are unmistakable. Nationally, while 50% of murder victims are white, the number rises to 76% when it comes to murders that end in the death penalty, indicating that the verdict is harsher when the victims are white. Of the 1,459 people executed in the U.S. since 1976, 55.7% — against a population of 77.35% — have been white and 34.5% — against a population of 17.9% — black.
There is not much debate in the U.S. on the death penalty per se. Bernie Sanders and Martin O’Malley were the only two candidates in the 2016 presidential campaign who opposed it. The rest were for continuing with it though there have been several documented cases of innocents being sent to death or coming close to it. During the campaign, Hillary Clinton was confronted on her views on the death penalty by an African American man who had spent 39 years in prison, and came close to being executed, before being exonerated. “This is such a profoundly difficult question,” she had replied.
The process and the product
But the debate on a “humane” way of execution continues and is revived every time a new execution is scheduled. The idea of capital punishment was inherited from Britain where, in the 19th century, 122 crimes were punishable by death. The U.S. began using electric chairs in 1888. In 1924, Nevada sought a “more humane” way and cyanide gas chambers were built. Since 1976, 1,284 executions have been carried out through the injection of a lethal cocktail, 158 through electrocution, 11 using gas chambers, three by hanging and three by firing squads. A total of 32 States, apart from the federal government, execute convicts.
The debate in recent years has been on whether or not execution by lethal injections is humane. This mode of execution involves an anaesthetic and a paralytic drug, followed by a final one that arrests the heart of the target. There have been multiple cases in which the targets gasped and convulsed during the execution. The process takes up to an hour to complete. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor had once said about the lethal injection: “What cruel irony that the method that appears most humane may turn out to be our most cruel experiment yet.”
Midazolam, the anaesthetic drug used by several States, and similar drugs became difficult to procure as companies that produced these refuse to sell them for execution. In April this year, Arkansas wanted to hurry up the execution of eight people before its drug stock expired. They executed four, and have recently announced that a new supply of drugs has been procured against cash payment, and executions will restart. Given the difficulty in procuring Midazolam, Florida chose Etomidate. The execution was termed ‘flawless’ by prison authorities.
Varghese K. George writes for The Hindu and is based in Washington
