Cyanide gas fills the chamber. .

             Introduced in 1977, lethal injection is the most commonly used method of execution in the United States today. The prisoner is strapped to a gurney lying on his back and a needle injects three substances. The intended effects of these drugs are that the first is an anesthetic, the second is a drug paralyzing the diaphragm and respiratory muscles, and the third stops the heart. Based on external indicators of pain and distress (i.e. screaming, sweating, facial grimaces, defecation and urination, vomiting, pupil dilation, writhing of the body) the general consensus is that lethal injection is the most humane method of killing. Advances such as this will anesthetize the public conscience to the reality of the death penalty, along with the condemned man. .

             "Murder and capital punishment are not opposites that cancel one another out but similars that breed their kind.".

             --George Bernard Shaw.

             During public executions in early America and Europe, pickpockets feverishly worked the crowds, even though picking pockets was a crime punishable by death. Not only did public executions of the past fail to deter, they provoked great violence, which was the principal reason why, despite enormous popularity, executions were removed from public view.

             The theory of deterrence, used so fondly by pro-death penalty advocates, follows that the greater the punishment for a particular behavior, the less likely we are to engage in that behavior. Common sense leads us to believe this to be true. Common sense also tells us that the earth stands still as the sky and stars spin around us. Upon further investigation, however, we find this gives the impression of the truth. .

             As capital punishment became morally troubling for Americans, this theory of deterrence offered a seemingly scientific explanation for state-sanctioned murder. Numerous studies have been conducted throughout the last century in examining the relationship between murder rates and the imposition of the death penalty, and the determination has been that there is in fact no consistent relationship between the two.