Currently, 34 states, as well as the U.S. military and the federal government, impose the death penalty as punishment for the most serious crimes. It is important that executions not be carried out in secrecy, and so states require a handful of citizens to act as legal witnesses to an execution, in addition to prison officials and relatives of both the condemned prisoner and the victim.
Since 1976, there have been almost 1300 executions in the United States. During that time, Texas has carried out the most executions, almost 500. Since 1973, more than 130 people have been released from death row after evidence of their innocence was discovered, according to the nonprofit Death Penalty Information Center. More than 3,000 mean and women remain on death row today.
In 1995, the survivors of the victim pled before the Texas Board of Criminal Justice to be allowed the opportunity of attending the execution. The first execution in Texas allowing victim witnesses was carried out on February 3, 1996.
How Execution Witnesses Are Chosen
The number of witnesses allowed to view an execution is always strictly limited, though the total number varies in each state. Typically, witnesses include:
- A few members of the victim’s family.
- A few members of the inmate’s family, legal counsel, and clergy of the inmate’s choosing.
- Some citizens—two to six, in most places—who serve as “official witnesses.” Typically, members of the media submit requests to act as citizen witnesses. If there are more requests than can be accommodated, local media may be given priority. Sometimes, others who have been involved in the case in some way—for example, in the investigation—request to serve as witnesses to the execution.
- Prison staff, such as the warden, deputy warden, and physician employed by the prison.
- Law enforcement officials who may have been involved in the case or students studying criminal justice may be allowed to attend the execution.
On the day of the execution, witnesses for the condemned and witnesses for the victim typically wait in separate rooms near the death chamber. A state employee may talk to the members of the victim’s family, explaining the process they are about to witness. Reporters are usually instructed not to talk to the witnesses. No one is allowed to take photographs or make recordings.
In unusual cases, unusual procedures may be followed. In 2001, U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft allowed 250 people to view the execution of Timothy McVeigh. Witnesses who were injured or lost relatives in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing were allowed to watch through closed-circuit television as the first federal execution was carried out in over 37 years.
Methods of Execution
Each state has its own laws regarding what method of execution is allowed for death row inmates. The primary method of execution used by every state, the United States Military, and the federal government is lethal injection. This form of execution, first used in this country in 1982, most often involves administering a combination of three drugs consisting of a barbiturate, a paralytic, and potassium chloride, which stops the heart. Some states, however, have adopted a one-drug protocol.
Other methods that are still authorized in at least one state include electrocution, gas chamber, firing squad, and hanging. These alternative methods are used only in unusual circumstances. Oklahoma, for example, authorizes firing squad, but only if lethal injection and electrocution were found to be unconstitutional. Some states give the choice to the condemned prisoner; Washington, for example, lets prisoners choose between lethal injection and hanging.
