Editing Capital punishment (section)

===Non-painful execution===
{{Further|Cruel and unusual punishment}}
[[File:SQ Lethal Injection Room.jpg|thumb|A gurney at [[San Quentin State Prison]] in California formerly used for executions by [[lethal injection]]]]
Trends in most of the world have long been to move to private and less painful executions. France adopted the [[guillotine]] for this reason in the final years of the 18th century, while Britain banned hanging, drawing, and quartering in the early 19th century. Hanging by turning the victim off a ladder or by kicking a stool or a bucket, which causes death by strangulation, was replaced by [[Hanging#Standard drop|long drop "hanging"]] where the subject is dropped a longer distance to dislocate the neck and sever the spinal cord. [[Mozaffar ad-Din Shah Qajar]], [[Qajar dynasty#Qajar Shahs of Iran, 1789–1925|Shah of Persia (1896–1907)]] introduced throat-cutting and [[blowing from a gun]] (close-range cannon fire) as quick and relatively painless alternatives to more torturous methods of executions used at that time.<ref>{{cite book|chapter-url=http://explorion.net/ride-india-across-persia-and-baluchistan/chapter-vii-ispahan-shiraz?page=3&quicktabs_3=1|title=A Ride to India across Persia and Baluchistan|year=1901|chapter=Ispahan – Shiraz|publisher=Explorion.net|access-date=23 February 2011|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110718200923/http://explorion.net/ride-india-across-persia-and-baluchistan/chapter-vii-ispahan-shiraz?page=3&quicktabs_3=1|archive-date=18 July 2011}}</ref> In the United States, electrocution and gas inhalation were introduced as more humane alternatives to hanging, but have been almost entirely superseded by lethal injection. A small number of countries, for example Iran and Saudi Arabia, still employ slow hanging methods, decapitation, and stoning.

A study of executions carried out in the United States between 1977 and 2001 indicated that at least 34 of the 749 executions, or 4.5%, involved "unanticipated problems or delays that caused, at least arguably, unnecessary agony for the prisoner or that reflect gross incompetence of the executioner". The rate of these "[[List of botched executions|botched executions]]" remained steady over the period of the study.<ref>Borg and Radelet, pp. 144–47</ref> A separate study published in ''[[The Lancet]]'' in 2005 found that in 43% of cases of lethal injection, the blood level of [[hypnotic]]s was insufficient to guarantee unconsciousness.<ref>Van Norman p. 287</ref> However, the [[Supreme Court of the United States|U.S. Supreme Court]] ruled in 2008 (''[[Baze v. Rees]]'') and again in 2015 (''[[Glossip v. Gross]]'') that lethal injection does not constitute cruel and unusual punishment.<ref>Paternoster, R. (18 September 2012). Capital Punishment. Oxford Handbooks Online. Retrieved 15 June 2016, from {{cite book |title=Capital Punishment |series=The Oxford Handbook of Crime and Criminal Justice|doi=10.1093/oxfordhb/9780195395082.001.0001 |date=29 September 2011 |last1=Paternoster |first1=Ray |editor1-first=Michael|editor1-last=Tonry|isbn=9780195395082 }}.</ref> In ''[[Bucklew v. Precythe]]'', the majority verdict – written by Judge [[Neil Gorsuch]] – further affirmed this principle, stating that while the ban on cruel and unusual punishment affirmatively bans penalties that ''deliberately inflict'' pain and degradation, it does in no sense limit the possible infliction of pain in the execution of a capital verdict.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/04/bucklew-v-precythe-supreme-court-turns-cruelty/586471 |title=Unusual Cruelty at the Supreme Court |work=The Atlantic |last=Epps |first=Garrett |date=4 April 2019 |access-date=20 July 2021 |url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190404112711/https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/04/bucklew-v-precythe-supreme-court-turns-cruelty/586471/ |archive-date=4 April 2019 }}</ref>