Warning: this story contains upsetting descriptions of executions America's use of the death penalty is under the spotlight once again after US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth announced that the military would livestream the execution by firing squad of Nidal Hasan. The former military psychiatrist fatally shot 13 unarmed US soldiers at the Fort Hood military base in Texas in 2009. His execution would be the first time the US Army had used a firing squad since 1945, a method that several states already authorise to put people to death.
And it comes on the heels of the botched death by lethal injection of Christa Pike - a woman convicted of murdering her classmate. Pike was taken to hospital and then discharged to prison 10 days later, after making a recovery from the failed attempt, her lawyers said. Amid rising concerns over botched executions - and renewed federal support for the death penalty - the US has introduced both new and old forms of execution like firing squads, the electric chair and the gas chamber.
The vast majority of executions in the US have been lethal injections since they were first introduced in Texas in 1982. The Death Penalty Information Center, a non-profit think tank that does not take a stance on the death penalty, says that there have been 64 botched executions, external over the past 50 years - including 51 botched lethal injections - out of a total of 1,683 executions. The difficulty of carrying out these executions, and the uproar over what some perceive as inhumane treatment, has led officials to consider alternative methods of putting people to death.
But medical experts and those who study executions say every method the US uses to put people to death can result in severe pain, especially when botched. "We always have the possibility that there's going to be a mistake made when human beings are involved in executions," said Robin Maher, the executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center. Public executions in the US stopped nearly a century ago - why are they resuming now?
Several medical groups - including the national associations for doctors and nurses - also ban their members from participating in executions. The American Medical Association, which represents doctors in the US, states they are "a profession dedicated to preserving life when there is hope of doing so" and that participating in any way in executions is antithetical to their oath. Lethal injection, which was first used in Texas in 1982, is now the most common way people are executed across the US, with many states making it their default method.
Dr Joel Zivot, a professor of anaesthesiology and surgery based in Atlanta, Georgia, said states turned to lethal injection because it appeared from the outside to be a more peaceful means of execution. Dr Zivot said that sometimes the injection of the drugs can cause pulmonary edema, when a person's lungs fill with fluid, which can give people the painful sensation of drowning. "It's a terrifying way to die - to drown," he said.
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