[3] Lethal injection was also adopted as a method of execution by Guatemala in 1996, China in 1997, the Philippines in 1999, Thailand in 2003, Taiwan in 2005, Vietnam in 2013,[4] the Maldives in 2014[5] and Nigeria in 2015.
[12] This alphabetical list features notable individuals up to January 2025, and only those where lethal injection can be reliably sourced to be the method of execution.
Lethal injection was proposed and adopted on the grounds it was more humane than the methods of execution in place at the time, such as the electric chair and gas chamber.
[16][17] A study published in The Lancet in 2005 found that in 43% of cases of lethal injection, the blood level of hypnotics was insufficient to guarantee unconsciousness.
[18] However, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled 7–2 in 2008 (Baze v. Rees) and 5–4 in 2015 (Glossip v. Gross) that lethal injection does not constitute cruel and unusual punishment.
In December 2020,
Brandon Bernard
became the 9th federal prisoner to be executed in the US, following the
Trump administration
's reinstatement of federal executions six-months earlier, after a 17-year hiatus.
[
20
]
The execution of
Dustin Higgs
was controversial. Higgs was sentenced for coercing someone to commit murder; the man who committed the murders later denied Higgs had influenced him.
[
21
]
In 2021,
Lisa Marie Montgomery
became the first female federal prisoner executed in the US in 67 years, and only the fourth overall.
[
29
]
Thai national
Jaturun Siripongs
was executed in 1999 in California for two murders. He always maintained he was involved in the crime but was not the actual killer.
Terry Melvin Sims
was the first person executed by lethal injection in the state of Florida.