1 00:00:01,680 --> 00:00:07,320 Speaker 1: Colz Media a warning this episode includes violent content which 2 00:00:07,320 --> 00:00:09,000 Speaker 1: some listeners might find disturbing. 3 00:00:13,160 --> 00:00:16,079 Speaker 2: I'm Michael Phillips, an historian and the author of a 4 00:00:16,160 --> 00:00:19,800 Speaker 2: history of racism in Dallas called White Metropolis, and the 5 00:00:19,840 --> 00:00:23,520 Speaker 2: co author with longtime journalists Betsy Freeoff, of the history 6 00:00:23,560 --> 00:00:26,400 Speaker 2: of eugenics in Texas called a Purifying Knife. 7 00:00:26,720 --> 00:00:30,600 Speaker 1: And I'm Stephen Monchelli, a journalist in Dallas who specializes 8 00:00:30,680 --> 00:00:34,280 Speaker 1: covering political extremism and far right internet culture for publications 9 00:00:34,320 --> 00:00:37,360 Speaker 1: like The Texas Observer, The Barbed Wire and others. 10 00:00:38,560 --> 00:00:42,199 Speaker 2: On December seventh, nineteen eighty two, the state of Texas 11 00:00:42,240 --> 00:00:45,879 Speaker 2: made history in a particularly grim way. It became the 12 00:00:45,920 --> 00:00:48,760 Speaker 2: first government anywhere in the world to put a prisoner 13 00:00:48,800 --> 00:00:52,760 Speaker 2: to death by lethal injection. This innovation was meant to 14 00:00:52,760 --> 00:00:57,160 Speaker 2: make the grizzly business of executing murderers swift and humane. 15 00:00:57,600 --> 00:01:01,800 Speaker 1: More accurately, it was meant to convince the witnesses of executions, 16 00:01:01,880 --> 00:01:04,679 Speaker 1: and by extension, the general public, that what they were 17 00:01:04,720 --> 00:01:09,440 Speaker 1: watching didn't violate the United States Constitution's Eighth Amendment ban 18 00:01:09,680 --> 00:01:14,840 Speaker 1: on Cruel and Unusual punishment. In fact, lethal injection is 19 00:01:14,880 --> 00:01:18,360 Speaker 1: based on junk science, and those who die that way, 20 00:01:18,400 --> 00:01:21,520 Speaker 1: may actually suffer more and over a longer time than 21 00:01:21,520 --> 00:01:24,840 Speaker 1: prisoners who were executed by electric chairs six decades ago. 22 00:01:25,600 --> 00:01:28,560 Speaker 2: In many ways, lethal injection is a con game designed 23 00:01:28,560 --> 00:01:31,360 Speaker 2: to hide from the public that their government is torturing 24 00:01:31,400 --> 00:01:35,720 Speaker 2: prisoners to death. As the University of Richmond law professor 25 00:01:36,120 --> 00:01:39,679 Speaker 2: Brenna Lane, the author of recently published book Secrets of 26 00:01:39,680 --> 00:01:43,600 Speaker 2: the Killing State, The Untold Story of Lethal Injection, told us. 27 00:01:43,920 --> 00:01:47,440 Speaker 3: What I've come to conclude is that lethal injection only 28 00:01:47,480 --> 00:01:53,640 Speaker 3: does one thing, well only one, and that is it 29 00:01:53,760 --> 00:01:59,040 Speaker 3: hides what the death penalty is. It hides the violence 30 00:01:59,520 --> 00:02:02,320 Speaker 3: of the death penalty, of what state killing actually is. 31 00:02:03,000 --> 00:02:05,520 Speaker 3: And I remember reading it's not in the book. I 32 00:02:05,560 --> 00:02:07,000 Speaker 3: kind of wish it I had put it in there, 33 00:02:07,040 --> 00:02:11,399 Speaker 3: but I remember reading this phrase, the heart stops reluctantly. 34 00:02:12,480 --> 00:02:14,640 Speaker 1: Over the next three episodes of it could happen here, 35 00:02:14,960 --> 00:02:17,639 Speaker 1: we're going to examine the shady business of state killing. 36 00:02:18,120 --> 00:02:21,000 Speaker 1: We'll share the twisted tale of the lethal injection and 37 00:02:21,040 --> 00:02:24,640 Speaker 1: the unqualified people who designed the protocol. We'll talk about 38 00:02:24,680 --> 00:02:28,160 Speaker 1: the untrained personnel who carry out the executions, and how 39 00:02:28,200 --> 00:02:31,200 Speaker 1: pressure from drug companies who didn't want their products associated 40 00:02:31,200 --> 00:02:33,840 Speaker 1: with death chambers have led prison officials in Texas and 41 00:02:33,880 --> 00:02:38,480 Speaker 1: elsewhere to lie to those corporations or buy the drugs illegally. 42 00:02:39,080 --> 00:02:42,000 Speaker 2: We'll also talk about the pain the condemns suffer and 43 00:02:42,080 --> 00:02:44,760 Speaker 2: speak with people who have accompanied those sends to death 44 00:02:44,800 --> 00:02:48,519 Speaker 2: and their final moments. We'll speak to a priest, Jeff Hood, 45 00:02:48,760 --> 00:02:51,560 Speaker 2: who as of this broadcast, has been the last friend 46 00:02:51,600 --> 00:02:54,799 Speaker 2: of ten men as they died by state command. 47 00:02:56,000 --> 00:03:01,040 Speaker 4: It's incredibly strange to see someone who up to machines 48 00:03:01,080 --> 00:03:07,160 Speaker 4: that look like they're there to support life, and yet 49 00:03:07,240 --> 00:03:10,400 Speaker 4: you know that they're there to take his life. 50 00:03:10,960 --> 00:03:14,560 Speaker 2: Well, tell the story of one heroic Texas man, Rays Bouyon, 51 00:03:15,040 --> 00:03:17,919 Speaker 2: who was blinded in one eye during a hate crime, 52 00:03:18,280 --> 00:03:21,840 Speaker 2: but fought to stop the execution of his white supremacist attacker, 53 00:03:22,240 --> 00:03:25,520 Speaker 2: who was enraged by the terrorist attacks of September eleventh 54 00:03:25,520 --> 00:03:28,840 Speaker 2: in two thousand and one and committed two Dallas area 55 00:03:28,919 --> 00:03:30,560 Speaker 2: murders in a shooting spree. 56 00:03:31,080 --> 00:03:34,080 Speaker 5: Well, definitely the execution that goes not about victims, because 57 00:03:34,080 --> 00:03:38,160 Speaker 5: the victims and the victims' family members requested and also 58 00:03:38,320 --> 00:03:41,480 Speaker 5: fault for clemency. You know why you went ahead and 59 00:03:41,600 --> 00:03:44,760 Speaker 5: requested the Governor of Texas, the Board of burdens and 60 00:03:44,800 --> 00:03:48,800 Speaker 5: earls that do not execute him in our names, you know, 61 00:03:48,840 --> 00:03:52,200 Speaker 5: show Marci, but looks like you know, we are not 62 00:03:52,280 --> 00:03:56,560 Speaker 5: in the same page. The system wanted to move forward, 63 00:03:57,200 --> 00:04:00,920 Speaker 5: so it was not in our names. It was basically 64 00:04:01,040 --> 00:04:04,680 Speaker 5: just to uphold the verdict and to keep the system running, 65 00:04:05,160 --> 00:04:10,080 Speaker 5: sending people to the executions without thinking how this execution 66 00:04:10,160 --> 00:04:12,600 Speaker 5: is actually going to help the society, How is going 67 00:04:12,600 --> 00:04:13,360 Speaker 5: to help people. 68 00:04:14,040 --> 00:04:16,800 Speaker 1: Finally, will look at the future of the death penalty, 69 00:04:17,000 --> 00:04:20,080 Speaker 1: which has become increasingly unpopular with the public, even as 70 00:04:20,120 --> 00:04:24,120 Speaker 1: politicians continue to happily embrace it. But before we explore 71 00:04:24,160 --> 00:04:27,880 Speaker 1: this dark and fascinating story, we'll hear a few messages 72 00:04:27,880 --> 00:04:30,920 Speaker 1: from our sponsors, which I hope do not include producers 73 00:04:31,000 --> 00:04:33,080 Speaker 1: of the chemicals used in the lethal injection. 74 00:04:44,320 --> 00:04:47,200 Speaker 2: The founders of the British colonies that became the United 75 00:04:47,200 --> 00:04:51,159 Speaker 2: States brought with them the often sadistic traditions of capital 76 00:04:51,200 --> 00:04:56,040 Speaker 2: punishment prevalent in sixteenth and seventeenth century Europe. Their royal 77 00:04:56,120 --> 00:05:00,640 Speaker 2: executioners dispatched their victims by boiling them alive, burning them 78 00:05:00,680 --> 00:05:03,480 Speaker 2: at the stake, tying them to horses that pull them 79 00:05:03,520 --> 00:05:06,960 Speaker 2: limb from limb, sawing them in half and beheading them. 80 00:05:07,560 --> 00:05:11,400 Speaker 2: Such elaborate executions were meant to underscore the absolute power 81 00:05:11,480 --> 00:05:15,560 Speaker 2: of monarchs, as the political scientist Austin Sarat noted in 82 00:05:15,600 --> 00:05:20,120 Speaker 2: his book grew some spectacles, botched executions and America's death 83 00:05:20,160 --> 00:05:24,400 Speaker 2: penalty quote. Capital punishment was precisely about the right of 84 00:05:24,440 --> 00:05:27,960 Speaker 2: the state to kill as it pleased. Live, but lived 85 00:05:27,960 --> 00:05:31,039 Speaker 2: by the grace of the sovereign. Live, but remember that 86 00:05:31,120 --> 00:05:35,040 Speaker 2: your life belongs to the state. However, even before the 87 00:05:35,080 --> 00:05:39,320 Speaker 2: American Revolution, those living in the American colonies embraced less 88 00:05:39,360 --> 00:05:44,520 Speaker 2: exotic forms of capital punishment. In sixteen oh eight, authorities 89 00:05:44,560 --> 00:05:47,880 Speaker 2: in Virginia hanged George Kendall, who was accused of being 90 00:05:47,880 --> 00:05:50,679 Speaker 2: a spy for the Spanish Empire. That was the first 91 00:05:50,680 --> 00:05:53,719 Speaker 2: execution in the British colonies in North America that later 92 00:05:53,760 --> 00:05:58,320 Speaker 2: became part of the United States. Inspired by the Old Testament. 93 00:05:57,920 --> 00:06:01,000 Speaker 1: Legal code, the thirteen British Colonies put prisoners to death 94 00:06:01,040 --> 00:06:04,560 Speaker 1: for a variety of misdeeds, including stealing food or horses, 95 00:06:04,920 --> 00:06:11,359 Speaker 1: killing a neighbor's dog or chickens, bestiality, blasphemy, idolatry, witchcraft, sodomy, adultery, 96 00:06:11,440 --> 00:06:16,320 Speaker 1: statutory rape, perjury, in a capital trial, insurrection, trees in manslaughter, 97 00:06:16,720 --> 00:06:18,440 Speaker 1: and of course, murder. 98 00:06:19,000 --> 00:06:24,440 Speaker 2: Eager to distinguish themselves from decadent, cruel European monarchs. In 99 00:06:24,480 --> 00:06:27,160 Speaker 2: seventeen eighty nine, the First Congress of the United States 100 00:06:27,160 --> 00:06:30,120 Speaker 2: submitted to the States the Eighth Amendment to the United 101 00:06:30,120 --> 00:06:35,240 Speaker 2: States Constitution, which banned quote cruel and unusual punishments. The 102 00:06:35,360 --> 00:06:39,719 Speaker 2: required number of states ratified the amendments seventeen ninety one. 103 00:06:39,760 --> 00:06:42,440 Speaker 2: From colonial times until the first use of the electric 104 00:06:42,560 --> 00:06:45,480 Speaker 2: chair in New York in eighteen ninety, condemned prisoners in 105 00:06:45,520 --> 00:06:47,800 Speaker 2: the United States usually died at the end of a 106 00:06:47,800 --> 00:06:53,080 Speaker 2: hangman's rope. More than half the Essamey's sixteen thousand executions 107 00:06:53,120 --> 00:06:56,279 Speaker 2: in all of US history had been by hanging. Hanging 108 00:06:56,400 --> 00:06:59,640 Speaker 2: was seen as a huge civilizational leap over, for instance, 109 00:06:59,800 --> 00:07:01,360 Speaker 2: skinning prisoners alive. 110 00:07:02,320 --> 00:07:05,880 Speaker 1: As products of the Enlightenment era, early American leaders like 111 00:07:05,960 --> 00:07:09,560 Speaker 1: Thomas Jefferson campaigned to make sure that the punishments fit 112 00:07:09,640 --> 00:07:12,920 Speaker 1: the crimes and that no one was executed for relatively 113 00:07:13,000 --> 00:07:17,800 Speaker 1: minor offenses. Beginning with Pennsylvania in seventeen ninety four, several 114 00:07:17,840 --> 00:07:21,400 Speaker 1: states such as Vermont, Maryland, and New Hampshire sharply reduced 115 00:07:21,440 --> 00:07:23,920 Speaker 1: the number of crimes that could result in the death penalty. 116 00:07:24,400 --> 00:07:28,960 Speaker 1: Perhaps not surprisingly, the South went in the opposite direction. 117 00:07:29,760 --> 00:07:32,800 Speaker 2: There, the white population lived in fear of the enslaved 118 00:07:32,800 --> 00:07:37,040 Speaker 2: African Americans they bought, sold, rape, whipped, and relentlessly forced 119 00:07:37,040 --> 00:07:41,840 Speaker 2: to work without pay. Whites reported laying sleepless at night 120 00:07:41,920 --> 00:07:44,800 Speaker 2: imagining what might happen if they faced justice for their 121 00:07:44,840 --> 00:07:48,200 Speaker 2: crimes they wanted the African Americans they so abused to 122 00:07:48,200 --> 00:07:50,920 Speaker 2: fear of the consequences of any form of resistance. 123 00:07:51,720 --> 00:07:55,520 Speaker 1: After repeated failed rebellions from seventeen oh four to eighteen 124 00:07:55,560 --> 00:07:59,040 Speaker 1: thirty one, as well as the Haitian Revolution, which saw 125 00:07:59,240 --> 00:08:02,200 Speaker 1: the death of many, if not all, slave owners in Haiti, 126 00:08:02,680 --> 00:08:06,800 Speaker 1: legislators in the South greatly expanded the range of offenses 127 00:08:06,880 --> 00:08:10,560 Speaker 1: for which enslaved African Americans and their suspected white allies 128 00:08:10,600 --> 00:08:15,120 Speaker 1: could be executed. Enlightenment ideas were not extended to African Americans, 129 00:08:15,120 --> 00:08:18,520 Speaker 1: who were subjected to fatal tortures as excruciating as any 130 00:08:18,600 --> 00:08:23,120 Speaker 1: experienced by accused heretics during the Inquisition. In Europe, enslave 131 00:08:23,160 --> 00:08:25,520 Speaker 1: men and women accused of rebellion or of trying to 132 00:08:25,640 --> 00:08:30,040 Speaker 1: escape their captivity, faced dismemberment or being burned with hot irons. 133 00:08:30,760 --> 00:08:33,080 Speaker 1: This legacy of violence in the South contributed to the 134 00:08:33,120 --> 00:08:36,000 Speaker 1: region's long term love affair with capital punishment. 135 00:08:36,960 --> 00:08:40,640 Speaker 2: However, even hangings from it as a kindly our way 136 00:08:40,640 --> 00:08:44,920 Speaker 2: to kill became a horror show. In Europe, executioners were 137 00:08:45,000 --> 00:08:49,360 Speaker 2: trained professionals who quickly gained a lot of experience. In 138 00:08:49,400 --> 00:08:52,800 Speaker 2: the United States, such killings were done by local officials, 139 00:08:52,840 --> 00:08:56,520 Speaker 2: often sheriffs, who might have little or no experience at 140 00:08:56,520 --> 00:08:59,760 Speaker 2: the gallows. Executioners had to do some complicated math in 141 00:08:59,800 --> 00:09:03,199 Speaker 2: order to do their jobs correctly. They had to calculate 142 00:09:03,240 --> 00:09:05,400 Speaker 2: the weight of the victim and ratio to the length 143 00:09:05,440 --> 00:09:08,040 Speaker 2: of the rope, and the likely speed at which the 144 00:09:08,040 --> 00:09:11,720 Speaker 2: condemned prisoner would drop through the trapdoor at the bottom 145 00:09:11,760 --> 00:09:16,680 Speaker 2: of the gallows. If the executioner calculated correctly, the prisoner's 146 00:09:16,679 --> 00:09:19,479 Speaker 2: neck would break at the end of the fall, theoretically 147 00:09:19,600 --> 00:09:23,800 Speaker 2: killing the unfortunate victim instantly. Hanging was supposed to be 148 00:09:23,880 --> 00:09:26,640 Speaker 2: clean and efficient, like the hanging carried out by the 149 00:09:26,720 --> 00:09:29,199 Speaker 2: US Army at the beginning of the movie The Dirty Dozen. 150 00:09:30,960 --> 00:09:34,080 Speaker 3: What did you think of the hanging? Look very efficient? 151 00:09:34,920 --> 00:09:39,760 Speaker 1: Authorities told themselves that hanging, when carried out appropriately and properly, 152 00:09:40,080 --> 00:09:45,200 Speaker 1: was painless. That thesis, however, was obviously impossible to prove. 153 00:09:46,120 --> 00:09:49,520 Speaker 1: For decades, hangings were public, and a set of religious 154 00:09:49,600 --> 00:09:54,840 Speaker 1: rituals revolved and evolved around these events, with notable exceptions. 155 00:09:54,880 --> 00:09:57,640 Speaker 1: Before the noose was placed around their necks, the condemned 156 00:09:57,640 --> 00:09:59,839 Speaker 1: told the sad tale of what led them to such 157 00:09:59,840 --> 00:10:04,240 Speaker 1: a terrible fate. They repented their terrible crimes and begged 158 00:10:04,280 --> 00:10:07,760 Speaker 1: God and society for forgiveness. The idea was that the 159 00:10:07,760 --> 00:10:12,520 Speaker 1: death penalty would teach the masses that crime doesn't pay. Reality, however, 160 00:10:12,600 --> 00:10:14,520 Speaker 1: often strayed from this script. 161 00:10:15,240 --> 00:10:18,199 Speaker 2: Pretty early on, the leaders of the American Republic realized 162 00:10:18,200 --> 00:10:21,800 Speaker 2: that the death penalty was actually morally corrupting, though most 163 00:10:21,840 --> 00:10:25,559 Speaker 2: of them continued to support it. Benjamin Rush, who signed 164 00:10:25,559 --> 00:10:28,840 Speaker 2: the Declaration of Independence to cry what he called the 165 00:10:28,880 --> 00:10:33,040 Speaker 2: death penalties quote brutalizing effect. Rush became one of the 166 00:10:33,040 --> 00:10:36,959 Speaker 2: earliest voices for abolition of capital punishment. He argued that 167 00:10:37,040 --> 00:10:41,439 Speaker 2: state violence made ordinary citizens more violent, and there's reason 168 00:10:41,480 --> 00:10:44,680 Speaker 2: to believe that's true. Consider the crowds that often watched 169 00:10:44,679 --> 00:10:48,719 Speaker 2: hangings and got drunk, and sometimes fights broke out as 170 00:10:48,720 --> 00:10:53,120 Speaker 2: witnesses battled over the best view of the gallows. Postcards 171 00:10:53,160 --> 00:10:57,880 Speaker 2: and mementoes were made of famous lynchings in places like Dallas, Texas, 172 00:10:58,440 --> 00:11:02,679 Speaker 2: and fights sometimes result in injury or death. Some of 173 00:11:02,720 --> 00:11:05,360 Speaker 2: the crowds would spend their time at hangings, not learning 174 00:11:05,400 --> 00:11:08,040 Speaker 2: somber moral lessons, but in fact picking the pockets of 175 00:11:08,040 --> 00:11:10,679 Speaker 2: other witnesses caught up in the drama unfolding on the gallows, 176 00:11:11,280 --> 00:11:15,760 Speaker 2: and executions were often followed by hours of looting, arson assaults, 177 00:11:16,040 --> 00:11:19,240 Speaker 2: another mayhem, as the public would engage in writing, not 178 00:11:19,360 --> 00:11:21,840 Speaker 2: unlike modern cities when they celebrate a home team's win 179 00:11:21,880 --> 00:11:25,800 Speaker 2: at the World Series. These unruly mobs unnerved the upper 180 00:11:25,800 --> 00:11:28,920 Speaker 2: class in Starting with Rhode Island in eighteen thirty three, 181 00:11:29,440 --> 00:11:32,960 Speaker 2: states began to move hangings inside prison walls away from 182 00:11:32,960 --> 00:11:36,960 Speaker 2: the public view. By eighteen forty five, public executions had 183 00:11:36,960 --> 00:11:40,320 Speaker 2: been banned in all of New England. This upset death 184 00:11:40,320 --> 00:11:44,400 Speaker 2: penalty abolitionists, who hoped that the routine horrors that unfolded 185 00:11:44,440 --> 00:11:48,040 Speaker 2: during executions might lead to the end of capital punishment. 186 00:11:48,760 --> 00:11:52,520 Speaker 2: Thus began the process where state governments increasingly killed people 187 00:11:52,520 --> 00:11:55,360 Speaker 2: in the name of the public, and a process shrouded 188 00:11:55,400 --> 00:11:56,119 Speaker 2: in secrecy. 189 00:11:56,720 --> 00:11:59,160 Speaker 1: Meanwhile, it's no secret that we have to pay our bills. 190 00:11:59,720 --> 00:12:11,839 Speaker 1: Will be back after a few words from our sponsors. 191 00:12:13,559 --> 00:12:17,800 Speaker 2: In eighteen ninety nine, in Samson County, North Carolina, a 192 00:12:17,840 --> 00:12:22,200 Speaker 2: local hothead named Art Kinsall's got into a heated exchange 193 00:12:22,440 --> 00:12:25,000 Speaker 2: with a neighbor, John c. Herring, at a country store. 194 00:12:25,920 --> 00:12:29,400 Speaker 2: During the fight, Kinsalls grabbed a butcher knife and repeatedly 195 00:12:29,440 --> 00:12:32,839 Speaker 2: stabbed Herring, killing him. A few days later, he was 196 00:12:32,960 --> 00:12:35,400 Speaker 2: arrested for the murder, but he escaped. He was on 197 00:12:35,480 --> 00:12:38,360 Speaker 2: the loose for nine months. After a gunfight with a 198 00:12:38,400 --> 00:12:42,320 Speaker 2: sheriff's posse, he was captured, put on trial, found guilty, 199 00:12:42,640 --> 00:12:46,640 Speaker 2: and sentenced to die by hanging. There the story got messy. 200 00:12:47,200 --> 00:12:50,400 Speaker 2: We'll repeat what we're about to say may be upsetting 201 00:12:50,480 --> 00:12:55,000 Speaker 2: to some listeners. Kinsall's was not one to passively accept 202 00:12:55,000 --> 00:12:58,199 Speaker 2: his fate. While awaiting his execution, he tried to take 203 00:12:58,240 --> 00:13:01,600 Speaker 2: his own life twice, time with sleeping pills and the 204 00:13:01,600 --> 00:13:05,160 Speaker 2: second time by cutting his own throat. These attempts delayed 205 00:13:05,200 --> 00:13:09,040 Speaker 2: the execution, but inevitably Kinsalls faced his appointment with the hangmen. 206 00:13:09,280 --> 00:13:13,199 Speaker 2: On September twenty eighth, nineteen hundred, local authorities used a 207 00:13:13,240 --> 00:13:16,640 Speaker 2: step ladder as gallows. Kinsalls did not fall from a 208 00:13:16,679 --> 00:13:20,320 Speaker 2: sufficient height to break his neck. Consequently, and the neck 209 00:13:20,360 --> 00:13:23,679 Speaker 2: wound from his suicide attempt had not completely healed, so 210 00:13:23,720 --> 00:13:26,600 Speaker 2: he was bleeding heavily as he dangled from the noose. 211 00:13:27,200 --> 00:13:29,679 Speaker 2: A doctor told the sheriff and hundreds of other horrified 212 00:13:29,720 --> 00:13:34,640 Speaker 2: spectators that Kinsal's was still alive. Officers cut him down 213 00:13:34,679 --> 00:13:38,160 Speaker 2: and hanged the unfortunate man a second time. This time 214 00:13:38,200 --> 00:13:41,520 Speaker 2: he died. In an era in which executions took place 215 00:13:41,559 --> 00:13:44,880 Speaker 2: all the time, Kinsaw's gory death cut through the fog 216 00:13:45,320 --> 00:13:50,080 Speaker 2: and made national news. The Virginia Pilot called the scene revolting. 217 00:13:50,880 --> 00:13:54,080 Speaker 2: During the history of hangings, hideous mistakes like this were common. 218 00:13:54,679 --> 00:13:59,840 Speaker 2: Sometimes because of an executioner's miscalculations, prisoners heads were yanked off. 219 00:14:00,320 --> 00:14:03,760 Speaker 2: Sometimes ropes ripped apart, with the prisoner falling to the ground, 220 00:14:03,840 --> 00:14:07,320 Speaker 2: only to be hanged again. During many hangings, the condemned 221 00:14:07,400 --> 00:14:08,880 Speaker 2: slowly strangled to death. 222 00:14:09,559 --> 00:14:13,120 Speaker 1: John Harris, a man hanged in Pennsylvania in nineteen thirteen, 223 00:14:13,640 --> 00:14:16,920 Speaker 1: actually screamed as he suffocated, prompting a headline in one 224 00:14:16,960 --> 00:14:22,640 Speaker 1: newspaper quote, prisoner tortured through bungling at an execution, According 225 00:14:22,640 --> 00:14:25,680 Speaker 1: to an estimate made in nineteen ninety three by illegal 226 00:14:25,720 --> 00:14:28,440 Speaker 1: team representing a client who was facing death by hanging. 227 00:14:28,480 --> 00:14:32,160 Speaker 1: In Washington State, between the years sixteen twenty two and 228 00:14:32,440 --> 00:14:36,440 Speaker 1: nineteen ninety three, authorities bungled one hundred and seventy of 229 00:14:36,480 --> 00:14:41,000 Speaker 1: about eight thousand legally authorized hangings, resulting in prolonged suffering 230 00:14:41,000 --> 00:14:43,800 Speaker 1: for the prisoners in more than two percent of the 231 00:14:43,840 --> 00:14:45,880 Speaker 1: death sentences carried out by this technique. 232 00:14:46,480 --> 00:14:48,920 Speaker 2: The growing middle class and upper class in the United 233 00:14:48,920 --> 00:14:53,200 Speaker 2: States became squeamish about hanging. As one writer put it, 234 00:14:53,800 --> 00:14:58,640 Speaker 2: bourgeois audiences might tolerate the ghastliness of death itself, but 235 00:14:58,680 --> 00:15:02,720 Speaker 2: not in competence and miss management. By the early eighteen eighties, 236 00:15:02,760 --> 00:15:06,560 Speaker 2: the New York Times had begun publishing lengthy, detailed and 237 00:15:06,720 --> 00:15:10,760 Speaker 2: graphic accounts of hangings gone wrong. In eighteen eighty five, 238 00:15:10,800 --> 00:15:14,320 Speaker 2: in response in mounting public concerns, New York Governor David 239 00:15:14,320 --> 00:15:18,320 Speaker 2: Bennett Hill declared, the present mode of executing criminals by 240 00:15:18,360 --> 00:15:21,000 Speaker 2: hanging has come down to us from the dark ages. 241 00:15:21,520 --> 00:15:24,000 Speaker 2: It may well be questioned whether the science of the 242 00:15:24,000 --> 00:15:27,240 Speaker 2: present day cannot provide a means of taking the life 243 00:15:27,320 --> 00:15:30,640 Speaker 2: of those condemned to die in a less barbarous manner. 244 00:15:31,240 --> 00:15:34,000 Speaker 2: As the backlash against the extreme brutality of hanging grew 245 00:15:34,080 --> 00:15:38,040 Speaker 2: among elites, the New York Medico Legal Society first suggested 246 00:15:38,080 --> 00:15:41,240 Speaker 2: research into whether prisoners could be possibly executed by lethal 247 00:15:41,320 --> 00:15:46,480 Speaker 2: injection in the eighteen seventies, but a different technology arose 248 00:15:46,520 --> 00:15:49,400 Speaker 2: that delayed the advent of that protocol by more than 249 00:15:49,400 --> 00:15:54,200 Speaker 2: a century. Famously, Thomas Edison was a greedy man took 250 00:15:54,200 --> 00:15:57,200 Speaker 2: credit for the inventions of his underpaid lab assistance, who 251 00:15:57,320 --> 00:16:02,200 Speaker 2: toiled as menlo New Jersey lif oborratory. Edison was also 252 00:16:02,240 --> 00:16:05,160 Speaker 2: a genius of public relations, and he would come to 253 00:16:05,160 --> 00:16:08,800 Speaker 2: dominate several industries. In the early eighteen seventies, his team 254 00:16:08,880 --> 00:16:12,480 Speaker 2: had developed a feasible incandescent light bulb that ran on 255 00:16:12,600 --> 00:16:17,280 Speaker 2: the direct current or DC system, as Edison himself described it. 256 00:16:17,880 --> 00:16:23,360 Speaker 6: On October twenty first, eighteen excepty what rumors, experiments resulted 257 00:16:23,520 --> 00:16:27,920 Speaker 6: in the production of a small unit map up comparatively 258 00:16:28,400 --> 00:16:33,920 Speaker 6: enormous resistance the pilipment the another conditions of great stability. 259 00:16:34,440 --> 00:16:38,880 Speaker 6: After the result, I knew the problem approached commercial solution. 260 00:16:40,280 --> 00:16:43,760 Speaker 1: In eighteen seventy nine, Edison submitted his patent for an 261 00:16:43,760 --> 00:16:47,600 Speaker 1: electric lamp. In eighteen eighty the Edison Illuminating Company opened 262 00:16:47,600 --> 00:16:50,640 Speaker 1: for business and soon provided lights for New York and 263 00:16:50,680 --> 00:16:53,520 Speaker 1: other cities. In the early days of the electric industry, 264 00:16:53,800 --> 00:16:57,720 Speaker 1: fatal accidents sometimes happened because of the new technology. In 265 00:16:57,760 --> 00:17:02,600 Speaker 1: eighteen eighty one, George Lemuel Smith, if an intoxicated Buffalo bricklayer, 266 00:17:02,960 --> 00:17:07,080 Speaker 1: stumbled into an unlocked electric plant and accidentally fried himself 267 00:17:07,119 --> 00:17:08,320 Speaker 1: by touching a generator. 268 00:17:08,960 --> 00:17:12,560 Speaker 2: An autopsy led some doctors to conclude that Smith died 269 00:17:12,640 --> 00:17:16,919 Speaker 2: quickly and painlessly. Many in the medical profession responded to 270 00:17:16,960 --> 00:17:21,960 Speaker 2: Smith's untimely death, but suggesting that perhaps electric power could 271 00:17:21,960 --> 00:17:25,239 Speaker 2: provide a more reliable and less grotesque way to rid 272 00:17:25,400 --> 00:17:29,240 Speaker 2: society of convicted murderers and rapists enter a Buffalo. 273 00:17:29,359 --> 00:17:33,240 Speaker 1: Dentist Alfred Porter Southwick and doctor George Fell of the 274 00:17:33,240 --> 00:17:36,760 Speaker 1: Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals who both 275 00:17:36,800 --> 00:17:40,040 Speaker 1: experimented with killing stray cats and dogs with electric current. 276 00:17:40,880 --> 00:17:44,360 Speaker 1: The early results were often horrifying, with the animals sometimes 277 00:17:44,400 --> 00:17:47,880 Speaker 1: burning live. Nevertheless, the two published an article that described 278 00:17:47,920 --> 00:17:51,800 Speaker 1: electrocution as the quote safest and kindest method of killing. 279 00:17:52,400 --> 00:17:55,200 Speaker 2: In eighteen eighty six, New York State formed a commission 280 00:17:55,560 --> 00:17:58,200 Speaker 2: the study of prisoners could humanly be put to death. 281 00:17:58,240 --> 00:18:01,320 Speaker 2: In a similar way, the so called Jerry Commission falsely 282 00:18:01,320 --> 00:18:05,240 Speaker 2: claimed that electrocuted animals tortured in a series of experiments 283 00:18:05,320 --> 00:18:10,199 Speaker 2: died spuzzledly, rapidly, and efficiently. Thomas Edison would soon see 284 00:18:10,240 --> 00:18:14,600 Speaker 2: a business opportunity in state killing. At the time, Edison 285 00:18:14,680 --> 00:18:17,200 Speaker 2: was locked in a so called current war with another 286 00:18:17,280 --> 00:18:22,479 Speaker 2: robber barren business tycoon, George Westinghouse. Westinghouse's labs had developed 287 00:18:22,480 --> 00:18:25,639 Speaker 2: a system that ran on alternating current, or AC, a 288 00:18:25,680 --> 00:18:28,800 Speaker 2: system that was more efficient, more popular, and less prone 289 00:18:28,800 --> 00:18:33,000 Speaker 2: to break down. Edison's DC system had already caused fatal electrocutions, 290 00:18:33,400 --> 00:18:35,600 Speaker 2: but the so called Wizard of Menlo Park wanted to 291 00:18:35,640 --> 00:18:39,639 Speaker 2: prove that the much safer Westinghouse system was in fact dangerous. 292 00:18:40,200 --> 00:18:43,240 Speaker 2: Edison had his engineer's electrocute animals using the AC current 293 00:18:43,480 --> 00:18:46,760 Speaker 2: in front of reporters to terrify the public about the system. 294 00:18:46,880 --> 00:18:50,440 Speaker 2: His most sinister ploy, however, was conspiring with the State 295 00:18:50,480 --> 00:18:52,640 Speaker 2: of New York to hook up its first electric chair, 296 00:18:53,000 --> 00:18:56,720 Speaker 2: invented by the aforementioned Buffalo dentist and engineer Alfred Southwick. 297 00:18:57,320 --> 00:19:01,600 Speaker 2: And Edison connected that chair too an AC power system. 298 00:19:02,000 --> 00:19:05,360 Speaker 2: The first man to face this new invention was William Kemmler, 299 00:19:05,880 --> 00:19:08,360 Speaker 2: who was convicted of murdering his girlfriend with a hatchet 300 00:19:08,480 --> 00:19:11,880 Speaker 2: during a drunken rage. The jury ordered him to die 301 00:19:11,880 --> 00:19:16,840 Speaker 2: by electrocution. Edison saw an opportunity for Kemler to die 302 00:19:16,880 --> 00:19:20,280 Speaker 2: in agony as the first man killed in an electric chair, 303 00:19:20,320 --> 00:19:24,080 Speaker 2: in order to fatally damage Westinghouse's reputation and that of 304 00:19:24,119 --> 00:19:27,920 Speaker 2: the AC current. Desperate to prevent his product from being 305 00:19:27,920 --> 00:19:32,119 Speaker 2: associated with something so ghastly, Westinghouse prohibited the sale of 306 00:19:32,160 --> 00:19:35,359 Speaker 2: his AC generators to New York State out of fear 307 00:19:35,400 --> 00:19:38,359 Speaker 2: that they would be used to execute Kemler, but Edison 308 00:19:38,400 --> 00:19:41,880 Speaker 2: sent his men to find secondhand Westinghouse equipment, which ended 309 00:19:41,920 --> 00:19:45,680 Speaker 2: up in the hands of prison officials. Westinghouse then secretly 310 00:19:45,760 --> 00:19:49,640 Speaker 2: hired an attorney for Kemler, but the appeals failed. At 311 00:19:49,640 --> 00:19:53,480 Speaker 2: six point thirty eight in the morning August sixth, eighteen ninety, 312 00:19:53,600 --> 00:19:56,440 Speaker 2: Kemler became an unwilling pioneer. 313 00:19:56,880 --> 00:19:59,679 Speaker 1: On the day of his execution, witnesses were impressed by 314 00:19:59,720 --> 00:20:02,800 Speaker 1: keml calm demeanor, as he wished everyone in the death 315 00:20:02,880 --> 00:20:06,480 Speaker 1: chamber good luck. After strapping Kemmler into the electric chair. 316 00:20:06,720 --> 00:20:10,199 Speaker 1: The executioner pulled a switch and Kemler's body convulsed and 317 00:20:10,240 --> 00:20:14,040 Speaker 1: became rigid. An attending physician announced he was not dead. 318 00:20:14,640 --> 00:20:17,879 Speaker 1: Kemler started to drool, and a second jolt was ordered. 319 00:20:18,359 --> 00:20:21,840 Speaker 1: Kemler started burning alive, and this time white smoke rose 320 00:20:21,880 --> 00:20:24,600 Speaker 1: in the air, filling the room with what witnesses described 321 00:20:24,640 --> 00:20:27,240 Speaker 1: as a quote pungent and sickening odor. 322 00:20:28,119 --> 00:20:32,639 Speaker 2: Afterward, Westinghouse said of Kemler's agonizing death, they would have 323 00:20:32,680 --> 00:20:36,919 Speaker 2: done better with an axe. The mayhem didn't matter. In essence, 324 00:20:37,000 --> 00:20:41,600 Speaker 2: plot failed. New York officials considered the electrocution a success 325 00:20:41,640 --> 00:20:44,879 Speaker 2: and stuck with the method for decades to come. Twenty 326 00:20:44,920 --> 00:20:47,840 Speaker 2: six other states adopted the electric chair as a method 327 00:20:47,840 --> 00:20:51,160 Speaker 2: of execution. Kemler's death would be the first of many 328 00:20:51,240 --> 00:20:55,200 Speaker 2: so called botched executions over the next century. As Austin 329 00:20:55,359 --> 00:20:59,720 Speaker 2: Sarat wrote in Gruesome Spectacles, eighty of the executions gone 330 00:20:59,760 --> 00:21:02,679 Speaker 2: around in the next century involved the electric chair, with 331 00:21:02,760 --> 00:21:07,040 Speaker 2: the failures involving, as he wrote, mechanical breakdowns, others resulting 332 00:21:07,040 --> 00:21:10,040 Speaker 2: in fire, smoke the smell of burning flesh. In a 333 00:21:10,080 --> 00:21:12,240 Speaker 2: prolonged period from the start to the completion. 334 00:21:13,240 --> 00:21:19,040 Speaker 1: Sometimes the executed person's eyes popped out during electrocution. After death, 335 00:21:19,440 --> 00:21:22,399 Speaker 1: the bodies of those electrocuted remained so hot that prison 336 00:21:22,400 --> 00:21:25,280 Speaker 1: guards often caught blisters if they touched the body too soon. 337 00:21:26,080 --> 00:21:29,159 Speaker 1: In nineteen twenty three, a man named F. G. Bullen 338 00:21:29,359 --> 00:21:31,960 Speaker 1: would be one of four executed in Arkansas on the 339 00:21:31,960 --> 00:21:35,440 Speaker 1: same day. Prison officials actually placed him in a casket, 340 00:21:35,560 --> 00:21:38,280 Speaker 1: thinking he was dead, when a guard noticed he was 341 00:21:38,320 --> 00:21:41,760 Speaker 1: still breathing. Bullan was then carried back to the chair 342 00:21:42,040 --> 00:21:45,600 Speaker 1: and electrocuted a second time, this time successfully. 343 00:21:46,600 --> 00:21:49,280 Speaker 2: Before the start of the twentieth century, critics knew that 344 00:21:49,320 --> 00:21:53,000 Speaker 2: both hanging and the electric chair were exercises in barbarity. 345 00:21:53,840 --> 00:21:57,520 Speaker 2: In the Lone Star State, ferinand Eugene Daniel, the editor 346 00:21:57,520 --> 00:21:59,920 Speaker 2: of the Texas Medical Journal, was an advocate of EUJA 347 00:22:00,040 --> 00:22:03,720 Speaker 2: nnix an opponent of capital punishment. He argued that cash 348 00:22:03,720 --> 00:22:06,720 Speaker 2: straining men from families with criminal histories would be a 349 00:22:06,720 --> 00:22:09,679 Speaker 2: way to prevent criminals from being born in the first place. 350 00:22:10,440 --> 00:22:14,320 Speaker 2: Cash straining criminals as more Eumani said, than a hanging 351 00:22:14,400 --> 00:22:18,240 Speaker 2: or electrocuting their children when those offspring inevitably turned to 352 00:22:18,240 --> 00:22:22,160 Speaker 2: a life of crime. Daniel accepted that executions would take 353 00:22:22,160 --> 00:22:24,960 Speaker 2: place for the foreseeable future, say one to make the 354 00:22:25,000 --> 00:22:29,080 Speaker 2: death penalty a vehicle for medical research instead of hanging 355 00:22:29,200 --> 00:22:32,960 Speaker 2: or electrocuting prisoners. Daniel suggested in a nineteen oh six 356 00:22:33,040 --> 00:22:36,040 Speaker 2: issue of the Texas Medical Journal that the state should 357 00:22:36,040 --> 00:22:40,560 Speaker 2: sedate them and, while unconscious, subject them to medical experiments. 358 00:22:40,720 --> 00:22:45,119 Speaker 2: Quote inject into him various disease germs. Watched their progress 359 00:22:45,359 --> 00:22:48,040 Speaker 2: and went through with him. Inject about ten drops of 360 00:22:48,080 --> 00:22:50,679 Speaker 2: prussic acid into the veins of his arms, and he 361 00:22:50,720 --> 00:22:55,080 Speaker 2: will die a painless death, Daniel wrote. Doctor Joseph Mengela 362 00:22:55,480 --> 00:22:59,040 Speaker 2: and other Nazi scientists would conduct similar experiments a little 363 00:22:59,080 --> 00:23:01,760 Speaker 2: more than three d yas d later. But as Professor 364 00:23:01,840 --> 00:23:04,960 Speaker 2: Lane explained to us, even before doctor Daniel made his 365 00:23:05,040 --> 00:23:08,840 Speaker 2: disturbing suggestion in the Texas Medical Journal, doctors knew that 366 00:23:08,920 --> 00:23:12,960 Speaker 2: death by lethal injection would be a horrifying experience. 367 00:23:13,160 --> 00:23:18,680 Speaker 3: When states turned from hanging to the electric chair. This 368 00:23:18,760 --> 00:23:23,000 Speaker 3: is back in eighteen ninety There was actually a study. 369 00:23:23,280 --> 00:23:28,000 Speaker 3: There was actually a report that recommended the electric chair, 370 00:23:28,680 --> 00:23:33,800 Speaker 3: and that report actually considered death by drugs a lethal injection. 371 00:23:34,600 --> 00:23:38,360 Speaker 3: And in that report they said, we considered and rejected this, 372 00:23:39,160 --> 00:23:44,080 Speaker 3: and they had two reasons. One was anatomical difficulties. 373 00:23:44,760 --> 00:23:48,640 Speaker 2: Professor Lane noted that even in the nineteenth century, doctors 374 00:23:48,720 --> 00:23:52,080 Speaker 2: knew that the criminal population had a higher tendency towards 375 00:23:52,160 --> 00:23:55,440 Speaker 2: drug abuse and poor health that would make it difficult 376 00:23:55,520 --> 00:23:58,239 Speaker 2: to access a vein with a needle in order to 377 00:23:58,240 --> 00:24:03,080 Speaker 2: deliver lethal chemicals. Also, even a century ago, doctors were 378 00:24:03,119 --> 00:24:06,840 Speaker 2: queasy about involvement and executions that violate the Hippocratic Oath, 379 00:24:07,240 --> 00:24:09,840 Speaker 2: which says, in part I will do no harm or 380 00:24:09,840 --> 00:24:13,520 Speaker 2: injustice to patients, or quote a minister a poison to 381 00:24:13,640 --> 00:24:17,360 Speaker 2: anyone when asked to do so, nor will I suggest 382 00:24:17,400 --> 00:24:21,200 Speaker 2: such a course. Professor Lane noted that a government commission 383 00:24:21,240 --> 00:24:25,439 Speaker 2: studying lethal injection late nineteenth century prophetically said that not 384 00:24:25,520 --> 00:24:28,800 Speaker 2: only would the medical conditions of prisoners be an issue, 385 00:24:29,560 --> 00:24:32,160 Speaker 2: but so with the likely refusal of doctors that take 386 00:24:32,240 --> 00:24:35,960 Speaker 2: part because of ethical concerns. This could mean that lethal 387 00:24:36,000 --> 00:24:38,520 Speaker 2: injection would be carried out biamates. 388 00:24:39,480 --> 00:24:46,280 Speaker 3: So you know, these people have notoriously bad things. They 389 00:24:46,440 --> 00:24:49,840 Speaker 3: are elderly, they are of poor health, they are often 390 00:24:49,920 --> 00:24:53,120 Speaker 3: former drug users. You know, how did we know this 391 00:24:53,320 --> 00:24:58,160 Speaker 3: in eighteen ninety and didn't think about this in nineteen 392 00:24:58,240 --> 00:25:01,679 Speaker 3: seventy seven. Now, that was one reason. The other reason 393 00:25:02,000 --> 00:25:04,560 Speaker 3: was they said, we're not going to be able to 394 00:25:04,560 --> 00:25:07,280 Speaker 3: do this without the medical profession. We're not going to 395 00:25:07,280 --> 00:25:11,080 Speaker 3: be able to do it competently. And the sustained and 396 00:25:11,280 --> 00:25:16,400 Speaker 3: strong opposition of the medical profession makes this not viable. 397 00:25:17,480 --> 00:25:20,320 Speaker 1: There were other less popular alternatives to hanging in the 398 00:25:20,359 --> 00:25:23,840 Speaker 1: electric chair in the nineteen hundreds. In nineteen twenty four, 399 00:25:24,040 --> 00:25:26,520 Speaker 1: Nevada became the first state to execute someone in a 400 00:25:26,560 --> 00:25:30,879 Speaker 1: gas chamber. Again, the euthanasia of straight pets and animal 401 00:25:30,880 --> 00:25:35,040 Speaker 1: shelters provided a model for human executions, and again there 402 00:25:35,040 --> 00:25:38,639 Speaker 1: were a lot of problems. Prisoners resisted breathing in the 403 00:25:38,680 --> 00:25:43,000 Speaker 1: poisonous gas, and this natural resistance slowed their deaths. The 404 00:25:43,000 --> 00:25:46,000 Speaker 1: big spaces and gas chambers often limited the effectiveness of 405 00:25:46,040 --> 00:25:49,359 Speaker 1: the poison gas, and in the earliest such executions, the 406 00:25:49,440 --> 00:25:52,720 Speaker 1: chambers themselves sometimes leaked, putting witnesses in danger. 407 00:25:53,600 --> 00:25:56,760 Speaker 2: As with the electric chair death penalty, advocates claimed that 408 00:25:56,800 --> 00:26:00,119 Speaker 2: the modern technology had provided a guilt free method for 409 00:26:00,160 --> 00:26:03,399 Speaker 2: the government to kill people. The reality couldn't be farther 410 00:26:03,440 --> 00:26:08,200 Speaker 2: from the truth. Doctor Richard Traitsman from John Hopkins University 411 00:26:08,280 --> 00:26:12,600 Speaker 2: School of Medicine wrote, quote, the person is unquestionably experiencing 412 00:26:12,680 --> 00:26:16,320 Speaker 2: pain and extreme anxiety. The sensation is similar to the 413 00:26:16,359 --> 00:26:18,880 Speaker 2: pain felt by a person during a heart attack, where 414 00:26:18,960 --> 00:26:21,320 Speaker 2: essentially the heart is being deprived of oxygen. 415 00:26:22,119 --> 00:26:26,440 Speaker 1: Eleven states, including California, eventually adopted death by poisoned gas 416 00:26:26,480 --> 00:26:30,600 Speaker 1: as their preferred method of execution, but witnesses consistently reported 417 00:26:30,600 --> 00:26:35,240 Speaker 1: the condemned seemed to die acctizing struggling deaths in which 418 00:26:35,280 --> 00:26:40,600 Speaker 1: they convulsed and wretched and sometimes screamed. In nineteen sixty, 419 00:26:40,800 --> 00:26:45,040 Speaker 1: California executed Carol Chessman, a convicted rapist who authored numerous 420 00:26:45,080 --> 00:26:48,959 Speaker 1: acclaimed books. While on death row. Before his execution, Chessman 421 00:26:49,040 --> 00:26:51,680 Speaker 1: told reporters who would witness his death that he would 422 00:26:51,720 --> 00:26:54,680 Speaker 1: nod his head if he was experiencing physical pain while 423 00:26:54,720 --> 00:26:58,320 Speaker 1: he was gassed. Reporters said that Chessman indeed nodded his 424 00:26:58,320 --> 00:27:01,520 Speaker 1: head multiple times as he choked in the poison fumes. 425 00:27:02,320 --> 00:27:05,080 Speaker 2: By the time at Chessman's death, the United States was 426 00:27:05,160 --> 00:27:08,359 Speaker 2: less than a decade from the longest pause and executions 427 00:27:08,640 --> 00:27:13,679 Speaker 2: in its history. Numerous judicial challenges the capital punishment based 428 00:27:13,680 --> 00:27:18,640 Speaker 2: on numerous racial biases police misconduct and other issues resulted 429 00:27:18,680 --> 00:27:22,120 Speaker 2: in a de facto moratorium on executions by the mid 430 00:27:22,200 --> 00:27:26,199 Speaker 2: nineteen sixties. That issue was the obvious racism of the 431 00:27:26,240 --> 00:27:30,080 Speaker 2: death penalty, including who was charged with capital crimes and 432 00:27:30,119 --> 00:27:34,560 Speaker 2: who ended up the target of state killing. As Brian Stevenson, 433 00:27:34,600 --> 00:27:37,320 Speaker 2: a New York University law professor and the founder and 434 00:27:37,400 --> 00:27:41,160 Speaker 2: executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative, explained in two 435 00:27:41,240 --> 00:27:42,640 Speaker 2: thousand and seven. 436 00:27:42,480 --> 00:27:45,760 Speaker 7: In the United States, we are struggling with capital punishment 437 00:27:45,800 --> 00:27:49,520 Speaker 7: and its implementation a short quick legal history. In nineteen 438 00:27:49,520 --> 00:27:51,840 Speaker 7: seventy two, the United States Supreme Court struck down the 439 00:27:51,840 --> 00:27:55,399 Speaker 7: death penalty after recognizing that it was being applied in 440 00:27:55,400 --> 00:27:59,439 Speaker 7: an arbitrary manner. The Court in seventy two noted that 441 00:27:59,560 --> 00:28:01,639 Speaker 7: eighty seven ven percent of the people executed for the 442 00:28:01,640 --> 00:28:05,080 Speaker 7: crime of rape were black men convicted of raping white women. 443 00:28:05,760 --> 00:28:08,200 Speaker 7: One hundred percent of the people executed in the United 444 00:28:08,240 --> 00:28:11,119 Speaker 7: States between nineteen thirty and nineteen seventy two for the 445 00:28:11,160 --> 00:28:14,680 Speaker 7: crime of rape were executed for offenses involving victims who 446 00:28:14,680 --> 00:28:17,359 Speaker 7: were white, even though it was believed that women of 447 00:28:17,400 --> 00:28:19,679 Speaker 7: color were three times as likely to be the victims 448 00:28:19,680 --> 00:28:20,560 Speaker 7: of sexual assault. 449 00:28:21,760 --> 00:28:24,959 Speaker 2: That racism would play a major factor in the largest 450 00:28:25,000 --> 00:28:27,920 Speaker 2: pause and executions in the history of the American death penalty. 451 00:28:28,600 --> 00:28:33,400 Speaker 2: The NAACP's Legal Defense Fund in the ACLU filed challenges 452 00:28:33,440 --> 00:28:37,159 Speaker 2: to the death penalty based on racial bias across the country, 453 00:28:37,160 --> 00:28:41,880 Speaker 2: and these legal teams won numerous stays of execution. As 454 00:28:41,880 --> 00:28:45,840 Speaker 2: Harvard law professor Kel Steiker observed in a YouTube video, 455 00:28:46,200 --> 00:28:49,040 Speaker 2: a de facto ban of executions had taken place by 456 00:28:49,040 --> 00:28:50,400 Speaker 2: the late nineteen sixties. 457 00:28:50,520 --> 00:28:53,800 Speaker 8: The death penalty was in decline already in the nineteen 458 00:28:53,880 --> 00:28:56,800 Speaker 8: sixties in the United States, as it was in Europe, 459 00:28:56,840 --> 00:29:01,960 Speaker 8: but the ldf's litigation campaign brought it to a complete halt, 460 00:29:02,560 --> 00:29:05,920 Speaker 8: so from nineteen sixty seven to nineteen seventy two. In 461 00:29:05,960 --> 00:29:09,640 Speaker 8: the five years prior to the decision in Furman versus Georgia, 462 00:29:10,160 --> 00:29:13,400 Speaker 8: there weren't no executions in the United States. 463 00:29:14,720 --> 00:29:19,320 Speaker 1: Three death penalty cases, Furman versus Georgia, Jackson versus. Georgia, 464 00:29:19,720 --> 00:29:23,000 Speaker 1: and Branch versus. Texas, reached the United States Supreme Court 465 00:29:23,160 --> 00:29:26,760 Speaker 1: and were consolidated in nineteen seventy two. All three defendants 466 00:29:26,800 --> 00:29:29,800 Speaker 1: were African American, and Jackson and Branch were charged with 467 00:29:29,880 --> 00:29:33,640 Speaker 1: raping white women As previously noted, no white man had 468 00:29:33,680 --> 00:29:36,360 Speaker 1: ever been executed for the rape of an African American 469 00:29:36,360 --> 00:29:40,080 Speaker 1: woman or child in American history. In June nineteen seventy two, 470 00:29:40,240 --> 00:29:42,840 Speaker 1: the US Supreme Court issued a five to four decision 471 00:29:43,120 --> 00:29:45,880 Speaker 1: in Firman v. Georgia, ruling that defendants received the death 472 00:29:45,880 --> 00:29:48,760 Speaker 1: penalty in such a fashion that capital punishment as then 473 00:29:48,800 --> 00:29:51,560 Speaker 1: practiced was unconstitutional. 474 00:29:51,200 --> 00:29:53,760 Speaker 8: So that there didn't seem to be any rhyme or 475 00:29:53,800 --> 00:29:56,560 Speaker 8: reason to it. To use the words that they used, 476 00:29:57,120 --> 00:30:04,080 Speaker 8: it was wantonle and freakishly imposed. The immediate aftermath of 477 00:30:04,160 --> 00:30:08,800 Speaker 8: Furman was dramatic. Everyone who had been sentenced to death, 478 00:30:08,840 --> 00:30:11,520 Speaker 8: and there were some six hundred ish people on death 479 00:30:11,600 --> 00:30:14,240 Speaker 8: row at the time of the Firman litigation, all had 480 00:30:14,240 --> 00:30:17,520 Speaker 8: their death penalties invalidated, so they were all sent to 481 00:30:17,560 --> 00:30:19,840 Speaker 8: the general population. They had to be re sentenced to 482 00:30:19,920 --> 00:30:24,360 Speaker 8: a sentence other than death. Moreover, when the Supreme Court 483 00:30:24,440 --> 00:30:28,080 Speaker 8: struck down the death penalty as it then existed, anyone 484 00:30:28,080 --> 00:30:31,560 Speaker 8: whose death sentence was pending that case had to be 485 00:30:31,640 --> 00:30:34,640 Speaker 8: dropped because those statutes were no longer valid. 486 00:30:35,640 --> 00:30:39,800 Speaker 2: No executions took place for another four years. The Supreme 487 00:30:39,840 --> 00:30:44,120 Speaker 2: Court had ruled executions were unconstitutional when the instructions juries 488 00:30:44,120 --> 00:30:47,600 Speaker 2: were given in capital cases were too vague. This gave 489 00:30:47,640 --> 00:30:51,200 Speaker 2: states like Texas a chance to rewrite their death penalty laws. 490 00:30:52,040 --> 00:30:55,120 Speaker 2: By nineteen seventy six, thirty five states that adopted new 491 00:30:55,200 --> 00:30:59,600 Speaker 2: statues addressing the issues raised in Furman. On July second, 492 00:30:59,680 --> 00:31:03,080 Speaker 2: nineteen teen seventy six, in its greg versus Georgia decision, 493 00:31:03,440 --> 00:31:06,760 Speaker 2: the Supreme Court, by a seven to two margin, upheld 494 00:31:06,760 --> 00:31:09,400 Speaker 2: the death penalty. In states like Texas, where the Court 495 00:31:09,480 --> 00:31:14,000 Speaker 2: found jury instructions were clear and specific, the death penalty 496 00:31:14,000 --> 00:31:17,840 Speaker 2: were set to resume after a decade long pause. It 497 00:31:17,880 --> 00:31:20,120 Speaker 2: took a mere one hundred and ninety nine days for 498 00:31:20,240 --> 00:31:24,880 Speaker 2: state killing to resume. Utah executed a murderer, Gary Gilmore, 499 00:31:25,240 --> 00:31:29,520 Speaker 2: by firing squad on January seventeenth, nineteen seventy seven. 500 00:31:30,840 --> 00:31:34,680 Speaker 1: The extreme violence of Gilmore's execution, which inspired in nineteen 501 00:31:34,720 --> 00:31:37,840 Speaker 1: seventy nine Pultzer Prize winning journalism based novel called The 502 00:31:37,880 --> 00:31:41,520 Speaker 1: Executioner's Song, sparked a renewed debate over the brutality of 503 00:31:41,560 --> 00:31:46,280 Speaker 1: capital punishment and whether it's compatible with modern society. Nevertheless, 504 00:31:46,280 --> 00:31:49,000 Speaker 1: the state of Oklahoma charged ahead, but they faced a 505 00:31:49,040 --> 00:31:53,160 Speaker 1: problem as Professor Lane writes the Oklahoma electric chair was 506 00:31:53,280 --> 00:31:56,720 Speaker 1: falling apart and needed to be repaired, but by the 507 00:31:56,760 --> 00:32:00,080 Speaker 1: nineteen seventies, many legislators were put off by the brutality 508 00:32:00,120 --> 00:32:03,280 Speaker 1: of that execution method and sought something more modern. 509 00:32:04,280 --> 00:32:08,520 Speaker 2: Meanwhile, a Dallas television reporter, Tony Garrett, filed suit to 510 00:32:08,600 --> 00:32:12,800 Speaker 2: allow television cameras to film executions, and a federal district 511 00:32:12,880 --> 00:32:18,040 Speaker 2: court granted a preliminary injunction in the reporter's favor. That 512 00:32:18,080 --> 00:32:22,160 Speaker 2: injunction was later overturned, but politicians across the country were 513 00:32:22,240 --> 00:32:25,200 Speaker 2: unnerved as a prospect of the public watching a man 514 00:32:25,280 --> 00:32:28,280 Speaker 2: essentially burn alive in their names and what that could 515 00:32:28,320 --> 00:32:30,040 Speaker 2: do to support for the death penalty. 516 00:32:30,600 --> 00:32:32,080 Speaker 1: It was at this time that a member of the 517 00:32:32,080 --> 00:32:35,640 Speaker 1: Oklahoma legislature approached the medical community and asked them for 518 00:32:35,680 --> 00:32:39,120 Speaker 1: help and designing a new protocol for death by lethal injection. 519 00:32:39,880 --> 00:32:43,040 Speaker 1: Politicians thought prisoners could be put to sleep permanently like 520 00:32:43,160 --> 00:32:48,200 Speaker 1: veterinarians euthanizing animals, but doctors wanted nothing to do with 521 00:32:48,360 --> 00:32:52,160 Speaker 1: killing people. That's when Oklahoma State corner doctor J. Chapman 522 00:32:52,280 --> 00:32:55,640 Speaker 1: stepped in, Referring to the physicians who refused to help, 523 00:32:55,680 --> 00:32:58,400 Speaker 1: he said, quote, to hell with them, let's do this. 524 00:32:59,280 --> 00:33:01,240 Speaker 1: Professor Lane explained what happened next. 525 00:33:01,960 --> 00:33:08,479 Speaker 9: A document in the book, legislators talking about, how, you know, 526 00:33:08,760 --> 00:33:10,840 Speaker 9: I don't know that the country's going to want to 527 00:33:10,880 --> 00:33:12,160 Speaker 9: see this sort of violence. 528 00:33:12,200 --> 00:33:14,400 Speaker 3: All we've got is the electric chair, all we've got 529 00:33:14,480 --> 00:33:17,120 Speaker 3: is the gas chamber. People are going to be, you know, 530 00:33:17,280 --> 00:33:21,120 Speaker 3: queasy about this, and we need to find a different way. 531 00:33:21,960 --> 00:33:26,320 Speaker 10: And unknown to many, or at least I appreciate it, 532 00:33:26,360 --> 00:33:29,560 Speaker 10: is the fact that a federal court had recognized at 533 00:33:29,600 --> 00:33:34,720 Speaker 10: the time a First Amendment right to televise executions. 534 00:33:35,240 --> 00:33:38,480 Speaker 3: Now it wouldn't last, but nobody could have known that. 535 00:33:38,920 --> 00:33:41,720 Speaker 3: And so one of the things I also found was 536 00:33:41,840 --> 00:33:45,000 Speaker 3: state legislators talking about, gosh, we can't you know, we 537 00:33:45,080 --> 00:33:49,000 Speaker 3: can't have an electrocution in someone's living room, right. The 538 00:33:49,280 --> 00:33:52,360 Speaker 3: public is not going to go for this, And so 539 00:33:52,400 --> 00:33:54,320 Speaker 3: they were they were looking for a different way. They 540 00:33:54,360 --> 00:33:56,520 Speaker 3: talked about, you know what about a death by drugs? 541 00:33:57,320 --> 00:34:01,640 Speaker 3: And they are asking the Statement Medical Association, they're asking 542 00:34:01,680 --> 00:34:05,280 Speaker 3: their personal doctors, they're asking everybody they can find. No 543 00:34:05,320 --> 00:34:08,960 Speaker 3: one wants to play, but they get to and this 544 00:34:09,080 --> 00:34:12,799 Speaker 3: is in Oklahoma. They get to the state Medical examiner 545 00:34:13,080 --> 00:34:18,640 Speaker 3: doctor J. Chapman, and he refers to himself as an 546 00:34:18,760 --> 00:34:21,319 Speaker 3: expert in tet bodies, but not in how to get 547 00:34:21,360 --> 00:34:21,959 Speaker 3: them that way. 548 00:34:22,680 --> 00:34:26,040 Speaker 2: In spite of his self confessed ignorance, Chapman made up 549 00:34:26,160 --> 00:34:29,520 Speaker 2: out of thin air the three drug protocol that would 550 00:34:29,560 --> 00:34:32,040 Speaker 2: be used in executions across the country for the next 551 00:34:32,080 --> 00:34:35,920 Speaker 2: three decades. Initially, he proposed a two drug protocol, but 552 00:34:36,000 --> 00:34:39,040 Speaker 2: decided that if two drugs were deadly, three would be 553 00:34:39,160 --> 00:34:45,240 Speaker 2: even more lethal. Chapman's cocktail included in order sodium theopental, 554 00:34:45,640 --> 00:34:49,279 Speaker 2: which was designed to kill like a barbituate overduse, pan 555 00:34:49,400 --> 00:34:54,160 Speaker 2: coronium bromide, which paralyzes the diaphragm in order to stop breathing, 556 00:34:54,640 --> 00:34:58,560 Speaker 2: and potassium chloride, which was intended to cause a cardiac arrest. 557 00:34:59,160 --> 00:35:02,719 Speaker 1: Chapman admitted he did no research into these drugs or 558 00:35:02,920 --> 00:35:05,359 Speaker 1: into how they interacted with each other, and neither did 559 00:35:05,360 --> 00:35:08,759 Speaker 1: the state of Oklahoma when they adopted this procedure. Despite this, 560 00:35:09,280 --> 00:35:11,560 Speaker 1: Chapman's method of execution would come to be used by 561 00:35:11,560 --> 00:35:15,000 Speaker 1: every single state that had the death penalty. Laine described 562 00:35:15,000 --> 00:35:17,799 Speaker 1: her shock when she came across interviews with Chapman, who 563 00:35:17,840 --> 00:35:21,719 Speaker 1: seemed completely glib about what prisoners might experience under this 564 00:35:22,000 --> 00:35:22,960 Speaker 1: execution method. 565 00:35:23,560 --> 00:35:28,120 Speaker 3: And I later came across an interview of him where 566 00:35:28,160 --> 00:35:30,960 Speaker 3: they asked, you know, how did you come up with 567 00:35:31,000 --> 00:35:34,720 Speaker 3: the three drug protocol that every state used, every single 568 00:35:34,760 --> 00:35:39,360 Speaker 3: state for thirty five forty years, And he said, I 569 00:35:39,400 --> 00:35:40,520 Speaker 3: didn't do any research. 570 00:35:41,320 --> 00:35:44,360 Speaker 11: I just thought about what might be useful, what you 571 00:35:44,480 --> 00:35:47,160 Speaker 11: might need. You wanted two drugs so that if one 572 00:35:47,160 --> 00:35:51,000 Speaker 11: didn't kill him, the other did. And then the interviewer said, well, 573 00:35:51,120 --> 00:35:52,880 Speaker 11: why did you add a third drug? 574 00:35:52,960 --> 00:35:56,200 Speaker 3: And he said, why not? I didn't do any research. 575 00:35:56,280 --> 00:36:00,600 Speaker 3: Why does it matter why I chose it? He makes 576 00:36:00,640 --> 00:36:05,920 Speaker 3: it up and the state of Oklahoma adopts it basically 577 00:36:05,960 --> 00:36:11,319 Speaker 3: in an afternoon, No expert testimony, no committee hearings, no 578 00:36:11,520 --> 00:36:17,120 Speaker 3: review of the medical science, veterinary literature, nothing, and. 579 00:36:17,400 --> 00:36:22,000 Speaker 10: It takes hold and all of the other states blindly 580 00:36:22,160 --> 00:36:23,719 Speaker 10: follow it. 581 00:36:23,719 --> 00:36:26,320 Speaker 2: It's possible Chapman may not have cared, but if he 582 00:36:26,360 --> 00:36:28,960 Speaker 2: had done any research, you would have found the components 583 00:36:29,320 --> 00:36:34,120 Speaker 2: of his three drug protocol worked at cross purposes. Anesthesiologists 584 00:36:34,160 --> 00:36:37,680 Speaker 2: believe that the amountain speed at which the sodium theapentall 585 00:36:37,880 --> 00:36:41,880 Speaker 2: is administered does not produce an anesthetic effect deep enough 586 00:36:42,120 --> 00:36:44,720 Speaker 2: for the executed prisoner to be unaware of what's happening 587 00:36:44,760 --> 00:36:48,759 Speaker 2: to them. Meanwhile, the sodian theapent hall also slows down 588 00:36:48,800 --> 00:36:53,560 Speaker 2: blood circulation so dramatically that it depresses the effectiveness of 589 00:36:53,600 --> 00:36:57,640 Speaker 2: the potassium chloride, causing those receiving the drug to suffer 590 00:36:57,680 --> 00:37:00,640 Speaker 2: a racing heart but not have a fatal heart attack. 591 00:37:01,239 --> 00:37:04,680 Speaker 2: The combined effect, in many cases is a slow suffocation 592 00:37:05,200 --> 00:37:09,040 Speaker 2: that involves pulmonary edema, the technical term for fluid in 593 00:37:09,080 --> 00:37:14,280 Speaker 2: the lungs in essence with lethal injection, States slowly drown 594 00:37:14,360 --> 00:37:17,880 Speaker 2: the paralyzed who struggle but are unable to cry for help. 595 00:37:18,480 --> 00:37:21,640 Speaker 2: When lethal injections have not gone according to plan, the 596 00:37:21,719 --> 00:37:25,880 Speaker 2: execution sometimes lasts hours, the agonizing deaths hidden from the 597 00:37:25,920 --> 00:37:26,680 Speaker 2: general public. 598 00:37:27,600 --> 00:37:30,359 Speaker 1: Some states have recently abandoned the three drug protocol, but 599 00:37:30,400 --> 00:37:33,160 Speaker 1: not for humanitarian reasons. They've done so because of the 600 00:37:33,200 --> 00:37:36,080 Speaker 1: difficulty of obtaining all of the drugs from pharmaceutical firms 601 00:37:36,239 --> 00:37:40,680 Speaker 1: that have resisted participating in capital punishment. As of this year, 602 00:37:41,160 --> 00:37:44,120 Speaker 1: twenty four states provide for some form of lethal injection, 603 00:37:44,719 --> 00:37:48,080 Speaker 1: and as previously mentioned, Texas launched the lethal injection era 604 00:37:48,160 --> 00:37:51,200 Speaker 1: in nineteen eighty two with the execution of Charlie Brooks. 605 00:37:51,920 --> 00:37:55,800 Speaker 1: In the next episode, we'll discuss that execution. We'll discuss 606 00:37:55,800 --> 00:37:59,080 Speaker 1: why lethal injections peaked in the nineties, how states got 607 00:37:59,120 --> 00:38:02,319 Speaker 1: around resistance from drug companies that manufactured the chemicals used 608 00:38:02,320 --> 00:38:05,400 Speaker 1: in the injections, how the medical profession has worked together 609 00:38:05,560 --> 00:38:09,479 Speaker 1: to thwart this particularly American machinery of death, and how 610 00:38:09,520 --> 00:38:12,759 Speaker 1: this has all been a mixed blessing for the approximately 611 00:38:12,840 --> 00:38:17,719 Speaker 1: two one hundred prisoners on death Row. I'm Stephen Montcelly 612 00:38:18,280 --> 00:38:19,440 Speaker 1: for It Could Happen Here. 613 00:38:19,640 --> 00:38:22,480 Speaker 2: And until next time, I'm Michael Phillips. Thanks for listening. 614 00:38:26,400 --> 00:38:28,880 Speaker 3: It Could Happen Here is a production of cool Zone Media. 615 00:38:29,080 --> 00:38:32,160 Speaker 3: For more podcasts from cool Zone Media, visit our website 616 00:38:32,200 --> 00:38:35,800 Speaker 3: Coolzonemedia dot com, or check us out on the iHeartRadio app, 617 00:38:35,880 --> 00:38:39,440 Speaker 3: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. You can 618 00:38:39,480 --> 00:38:41,800 Speaker 3: now find sources for it Could Happen here listed directly 619 00:38:41,840 --> 00:38:44,120 Speaker 3: in episode descriptions. Thanks for listening.