Lethal Injection or Other?

[Kai'ichi]

Dunno if we've discussed this before, and don't really care.

So I'm kind of trying to write a crime novel and somewhere I got distracted from searching for a name for the partner of my protagonist and ended up searching how painless the lethal injection really is...which has nothing at all to do with my crime novels. I'm not sure how I even began looking up the details.

Anyway if (because we're obviously mass-murderers on here) by some chance you were a)sentenced to death and b)had the chance to choose how you died what choice would you make: Lethal injection, firing squad, gas, or electric chair?

I think I'd go with the firing squad. I'm extremely wary of the lethal injection, and the other two seem unappealing in comparison.

[Madi The Unicorn]

Well seeing as I'm obviously a murderer I think.. The chair probably? I don't know, I don't like the sounds of lethal injection because I'm pretty sure I read recently that some dude survived it like several times because they screwed up or something, and if it didn't kill him I hate to think what he was feeling...

Firing squad doesn't sound great to me, and neither does gas.. Idk. Electric chair sounds more fun.

If we could /really/ choose and our deaths were completely imminent I'd want something either really crazy so people would find out and be like :"what the actual sexytime" or just the boring "painless in my sleep" type deal...

Also this was a really weird question to make people consider.

[Apeman711//Cameron]

Electric Chair would be my choice. Lethal injection would be second, gas third. Firing squad would be too painful I think. If I were to die from electric chair I'd have to request that they played ride the lightning by Metallica while I was sitting in the chair.

[pixie]

We actually watched a documentary about execution in my government class. Apparently, all of those are extremely painful. Lethal injection is said to be the best, however, those who have survived it claim that it is extremely painful. The gas is supposedly not as bad if you don't panic, but everyone always does and it supposedly burns really badly. What's absolutely ridiculous is that they've actually found a gas that is completely painless and causes a sense of euphoria just before death, but no one uses it. I would never pick electric chair, as in the documentary, they showed the effects of the chair on a pig carcass. it was awful.

[Wanderer]

^Wow I didn't know that, I always assumed lethal injection was relatively painless. I don't like the idea of being gassed either... asphyxiation, along with drowning and burning, has always been on my top list of ways in which I don't want to die because I'm weird & morbid and create lists like that.

Do they still hang people nowadays? Because I would choose death by hanging.

[Kai'ichi]

I completely forgot to include hanging. The thing is that if it isn't done correctly then you end up strangling, instead of having your neck broken. I mean, there are problems with each of the methods but I still say that firing squad is the best chance for a quick death (that is if you trust the shooters not to miss on purpose).

See I'm surprised people would choose the chair. It sounds scary to me, and I'm pretty sure it'd be painful if the first shock didn't stop your heart. I mean, the chair is more reliable than it was when it was first invented but I wouldn't want to do it.

About lethal injection - like I said I'm wary of it. You can't tell whether or not the person is suffering because of the way it's used, and in theory if it was administered wrongly you'd be suffering for a good ten minutes before death. Plus there have been claims that it looks painless and humane but is the complete opposite. Besides sometimes they have real trouble finding a vein. The horrible thing about all this is that this could be tested and there ARE other methods which would be pretty much painless - but they aren't considered at all.

Yeah if there actually was free choice about the way to die I'm pretty sure I'd choose the most painless method around.

[Luke]

I'm really interested to see your crime novel - just a by the by.

Yeah, if firing squad is what I think it is (being shot at by a squad?) then it sounds the most quick and the least painful. Gas would be terrible. Really, really terrible.

[Madi The Unicorn]

Still going with the chair personally. Firing Squad sounds gruesome if it doesn't go quite to plan.. I don't really trust people to shoot straight xD

Hanging yuck, no, i just can't have that just thinking about it is making me hide my neck :L

Gas would be horrific.

[sarah]

We're doing about capital punishment in General RE and personally I'd go for the fastest. It's all pretty horrible tbh and hanging seems a bit Victorian

[Lydiaaaaa:D]

For my English essay we have to wright a letter to someone or something I am going to wright a letter the death chair from the eyes of a murderer on death row.

Had a little watch of the ending of Dead Man walking and had to turn it off as I just couldn't stop crying. I mean its just so sad:

Sister Helen: "Look into my eyes when you die and you will see the face of love"
Me: *Bursts into tears*

[sarah]

We watched the scene where he is killed and it made me feel a bit ill tbh

[pixie]

I would never go for the chair. It set's you on fire and burns your skin. It can take a bunch of shocks to die. That seems really terrible to me. Burning is supposed to be one of the absolute most painful ways to die, which isn't what kills you here, but it is happening while you're dying. If they used the gas in the film I watched, I'd definitely go like that. They tested it on pigs (didn't actually kill them, just gave them enough to get dizzy) and they showed no fear or anything. Then they tested it on this guy, where he was breathing it through this mask and they had this other guy sitting next to him and the guy just breathing it in didn't even care. Like, they were talking to him and they were like "if you don't take off the mask, it's going to kill you." and he didn't even try and the other guy had to take it off for him. When they asked him about it he said "I just felt really good." so that's what I'd pick, but they don't offer it.