States' Methods of Executions

Jan 6, 2008

WASHINGTON (AP) — If the Supreme Court decides that the three-drug combination most commonly used in lethal injection executions should be scrapped, 14 states could be forced to change their law to restart executions.

Other states easily could switch to a single drug, as critics of the current combination want, or use a different means of execution.

Nebraska is the only state that has electrocution as its only method of execution.

A look at methods of executions and the states using them, plus a list of states where legislation might be required before resuming lethal injections:

LETHAL INJECTION (35 states): Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, Wyoming.

STATES THAT COULD REQUIRE LEGISLATION TO RESUME LETHAL INJECTIONS (14 states): Arkansas, Colorado, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Maryland, Mississippi, Montana, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Wyoming.

ELECTROCUTION (9 states): Alabama, Arkansas (only for crimes committed before July 4, 1983), Florida, Kentucky (only for inmates sentenced before 1998), Nebraska, Oklahoma (if lethal injection unconstitutional), South Carolina, Tennessee (only for crimes committed before 1999), Virginia.

GAS (4 states): Arizona (only for inmates sentenced before Nov. 1992), California, Missouri, Wyoming (if lethal injection unconstitutional).

HANGING (3 states): Delaware, New Hampshire (only if lethal injection can't be given), Washington.

FIRING SQUAD (3 states): Idaho, Oklahoma (only if both lethal injection and electrocution are found unconstitutional), Utah (only for inmates who chose it before 2004).

NO DEATH PENALTY (14 states and the nation's capital): Alaska, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey (death penalty abolished in December), New York (death penalty law declared unconstitutional by state court), North Dakota, Rhode Island, Vermont, West Virginia, Wisconsin.