science

List of people executed by lethal injection

List of people executed by lethal injection is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand List of people executed by lethal injection rather than just read about it. In short: Lethal injection is the practice of injecting one or more drugs into a person by a government for the express purpose of causing immediate death. While Nazi Germany was known to execute enemies of the state using an injection of lethal drugs, the first country to legalize and formally implement what is referred to today as lethal injection was the United States.

Key takeaways

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Reference excerpt

Lethal injection is the practice of injecting one or more drugs into a person by a government for the express purpose of causing immediate death. While Nazi Germany was known to execute enemies of the state using an injection of lethal drugs, the first country to legalize and formally implement what is referred to today as lethal injection was the United States. The state of Texas adopted it as its form on capital punishment in 1977 and executed the first person by it, Charles Brooks Jr., in 1982. The practice was subsequently adopted by the other US states using capital punishment. As of 2025, the method is available for use by 27 US states, as well as by their federal government and military. Lethal injection was proposed and adopted on the grounds it was more humane than the methods of execution in place at the time, such as the electric chair and gas chamber. Opponents of lethal injection reject this argument, noting multiple cases where executions have been either painful, prolonged, or both. According to the Death Penalty Information Center, lethal injections have the highest rate of botched executions of any method used in the US, with 7.12% of executions using this method between 1982 and 2010 considered to have not gone according to plan. A study published in The Lancet in 2005 found that in 43% of cases of lethal injection, the blood level of hypnotics was insufficient to guarantee unconsciousness. The Supreme Court of the United States ruled 7–2 in 2008 (Baze v. Rees), 5–4 in 2015 (Glossip v. Gross), and 5–4 in 2019 (Bucklew v. Precythe) that lethal injection does not constitute cruel and unusual punishment. Lethal injection was also adopted as a method of execution by Guatemala in 1996, China in 1997, the Philippines in 1999, Thailand in 2003, Taiwan in 2005, Vietnam in 2013, the Maldives in 2014 and Nigeria in 2015. The Philippines abolished the death penalty in 2006. While the death penalty still exists in the Maldives and Guatemala, no executions have been carried out there since 1954 and 2000 respectively. Taiwan has never actually used the method, instead carrying out all executions by single gunshot. The US and China are the two biggest users of this method of execution. The US had executed 1,478 people via lethal injection as of May 2026. The number of people executed annually in China is thought to surpass all other countries combined, though the actual number is a state secret, and the percentage of people executed via lethal injection and the other method of execution used there, firing squad, is also unclear. This alphabetical list features notable executions up to May 2026, and only those where lethal injection can be reliably sourced to be the method used. The criterion for notability is either an article on the individual, the crime they were executed for, or a court case related to their execution, in the English Wikipedia.

Executions

See also Lists of people executed by methods other than lethal injection Lists of people executed in the United States (1900–1972) Lists of people executed in the United States since 1976 Lists of people by cause of death

References

Illustrations

List of people executed by lethal injection: At 76, Clarence Ray Allen is one of the oldest people to be executed in the US.[23] — At 76, Clarence Ray Allen is one of the oldest people to be executed in the US.[23]

List of people executed by lethal injection: Stephen Wayne Anderson was executed in California in 2002 for murder. — Stephen Wayne Anderson was executed in California in 2002 for murder.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with List of people executed by lethal injection

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what List of people executed by lethal injection claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to List of people executed by lethal injection before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about List of people executed by lethal injection ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of List of people executed by lethal injection

In research: List of people executed by lethal injection appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses List of people executed by lethal injection in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: List of people executed by lethal injection is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Lethal injection, Lists of executed people by method, People executed by lethal injection, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for List of people executed by lethal injection outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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Frequently asked questions

What is List of people executed by lethal injection in simple terms?

Why does List of people executed by lethal injection matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

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Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

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