by Robert Johnson

About the author: Robert Johnson is Professor of Justice, Law, and Society in the School of Public Affairs at American University in Washington, D.C. He is also the author of several books, including Condemned to Die: Life under Sentence of Death, and Death Work: A Study of the Modern Execution Process.

America, perhaps more than any other country, has tinkered with the mechanics of legal executions in a search for the "perfect" method. In operational terms, perfect means the most tame and reliable method of killing made possible by existing technology. Our preferred methods have evolved over the centuries. Beginning with the rather simple and unambiguous violence of hangings and shootings (by firing squads)—which involved direct and unembellished applications of techniques used elsewhere in the world and, in the case of hangings, in practice for centuries...