Though inmates on Death Row all have the same destination, some methods are more painful and torturous than others.
Last year, 25 people – all men – across nine states were put to death as punishment for heinous crimes like murder.
There are several execution methods performed in the US, but the vast majority, about 1,000 since the 1970s, have been through lethal injection, a three-drug concoction that renders the body unconscious and induces a heart attack.
However, amid a series of botched executions with lethal injection that have led to painful deaths and even failed executions that required the inmate to undergo another round, some more archaic methods have gradually made their way back into the 27 states that allow the death penalty.
Before lethal injection became the most common execution method, most offenders were killed by electric chair, which sends 2,000 volts of electricity through the nervous system and ‘fries’ the brain.
Earlier this year, Alabama executed murderer Brad Sigmon via firing squad, a 400-year old technique in which corrections officers shoot one bullet into an inmate’s chest.
It was America’s first firing squad execution in 15 years.
DailyMail.com has revealed the most brutal ways to be executed, as told by experts and witnesses.
Firing Squad
A chair sits in the execution chamber at the Utah State Prison. It is designated for firing squad, an archaic execution method making a comeback
Last month, Brad Sigmon of South Carolina was tied down to an armless chair. A white target with a red bullseye was pinned to his chest.
Guards held his head in place with straps across his chin and forehead and put a black hood over his head. Sandbags surrounded the chair to soak up his blood.
In an enclosure about 20 feet away, three officers raised their rifles and each shot a bullet into Sigmon’s chest at the same time. He was declared dead three minutes later.
Sigmon, 67, was the first American in 15 years to be put to death via firing squad, a centuries old execution method that only recently regained traction.
Just weeks after Sigmon’s execution, 42-year-old Mikal Mahdi of South Carolina met the same fate after choosing firing squad over lethal injection or the electric chair.
He spent about 45 seconds groaning in pain and was declared dead four minutes after the shots rang out.
Brad Sigmon, pictured here, was the first American executed via firing squad in 15 years
Firing squad executions in the US date back to 1608, and about 142 people have been put to death this way since then.
In a modern-day firing squad execution, three officers stand about 15 feet away and fire through a small opening in the wall. The inmate’s head is covered and they are restrained by their arms and legs.
Despite the brutality of the method, some experts have suggested a firing squad execution may be one of the fastest ways to die.
Dr James Williams, an emergency room physician in Texas and courtroom expert on firing squad executions, told The Marshall Project: ‘There is a lot of evidence that the near-instant loss of blood pressure means no blood gets to the brainstem, and there is a rapid loss of consciousness.
He compared it to a chokehold, which causes loss of consciousness in three to five seconds.
However, a South Carolina court in 2022 said firing squad death could be considered ‘torture’ because it damages an inmate’s heart and its surrounding bone and tissue.
Experts testifying in the case said this would be extremely painful until the inmate falls unconscious.
Firing squads are legal in Idaho, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Utah. Inmates can choose the methods in Utah and South Carolina, and in Mississippi it may be used if lethal injections are unavailable.
A March 2025 bill made firing squad the main execution method in Idaho.
Nitrogen gas
It’s an execution method so cruel the United Nations branded it ‘torture.’
Nitrogen gas execution, also called ‘nitrogen hypoxia,’ uses nitrogen gas to suffocate a person.
Inmates are strapped to a gurney, unable to move any of their limbs, and are fitted with a mask and forced too breathe in pure nitrogen.
Though nitrogen is naturally occurring and composes more than three-quarters of the air we breath, inhaling it at high concentrations leads to suffocation.
While authorities in the four states where nitrogen hypoxia is legal – Alabama, Oklahoma, Mississippi and Louisiana – predict nitrogen hypoxia knocks an inmate unconscious and causes multi-organ failure in five to 15 minutes, critics say it causes excessive pain and humiliation.
This could mean being left in a vegetative state or choking on one’s own vomit.
The World Society for the Protection of Animals said in its 2013 guidelines: ‘Current evidence indicates this method is unacceptable because animals may experience distressing side effects before loss of consciousness.’
The American Veterinary Medical Association made a similar conclusion in its 2020 guidance.
And officials from the United Nations said it could breach human rights treaties that forbid ‘torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.’
Kenneth Smith of Alabama last year became the first American executed by nitrogen gas, a method dubbed by authorities as too cruel for animals
Jessie Hoffman Jr., 46, became America’s fifth inmate executed by nitrogen as last in March. It took 19 minutes for him to stop breathing
Some critics say that the use of a one-size-fits-all mask means that it’s not airtight.
An inadequate seal could lead to oxygen leaking through the mask, which could lead to a prolonged and painful death.
According to the theory, this could also lead to a stroke, seizure or the inmate being put into a vegetative state instead of dying.
Even brain cells that are starved of oxygen for a few minutes may never recover, leaving the sufferer brain dead but still technically alive.
Last year, Kenneth Smith of Alabama became the first American executed with nitrogen gas. It took 22 minutes for the 58-year-old to be pronounced dead, during which he thrashed against the gurney, convulsed and vomited into his mask.
Since then, four more men have chosen nitrogen gas for their execution.
Jessie Hoffman Jr of Louisiana became America’s fifth inmate executed with nitrogen gas in March. It took 19 minutes for him to stop breathing.
Witnesses reported he twitched and jerked his head with fists clenched.
Prisoners can select this method of execution. In Mr Smith’s case, he chose it after surviving a botched lethal injection.
Lethal injection
Pictured above is Joe Hutchinson, a convicted five-time murderer executed by the state of Florida vias lethal injection on May 1, 2025
Lethal injection is the most common execution method in the US, with 1,377 injections administered since the 1970s.
The method was first developed in 1977, though it would be five years before it would be used for the first time in Texas inmate Charles Brooks.
Today, all 27 states that have the death penalty allow lethal injection.
Lethal injection involves restraining the inmate to a gurney and placing heart monitors on their skin.
Two needles, one of which is a backup, are inserted into the prisoner’s veins, usually their arms.
The inmate is given a trio of chemicals: the anesthetic midazolam to render them unconscious, the paralytic bromide to stop them from moving and potassium chloride to stop their heart.
Dr Joel Zivot, an anesthesiologist and professor at Emory University in Atlanta, told CNN the 500 milligram dose of anesthetic likely triggers pulmonary edema, a condition in which fluid builds up in the lungs.
If the inmate is not fully unconscious, pulmonary edema could make them feel as if they are drowning.
However, Dr Ervin Ten, a retired anesthesiologist who has witnessed several executions, said if pulmonary edema starts after a patient becomes unconscious, it is likely ‘not causing them discomfort.’
Lethal injection is the most common execution method in the US. It involves a trio of chemicals meant to anesthetize, paralyze and induce cardiac arrest. Pictured above is a physician in Belgium administering a lethal injection in 2024
Experts have also raised concerns that the paralytic would render an inmate unable to communicate distress if they have not properly been knocked unconscious.
Dr Mark Health, an anesthesiology professor at Columbia University, testified in a lawsuit challenging Kentucky’s execution protocol that some inmates have cried tears during the process.
He said this could indicate severe pain or suffocation.
Potassium chloride has also been shown to cause severe pain, which some experts comparing it to feeling like the arm is on fire.
The whole process is meant to take about five minutes, but botched case can take up to two hours.
The most recent lethal injection procedure was performed May 1, 2025, in Florida for Jeffrey Hutchinson, who was convicted of murdering 32-year-old single mother Renee Flaherty and her three children in 1998.
The procedure took 15 minutes. According to the Associated Press, Hutchinson’s legs shook and his body spasmed for several minutes before he went still and was declared dead.
Glen Rogers, nicknamed the ‘Casanova Killer,’ will also be given a lethal injection in Florida two weeks later for the murder of five people in the 1990s.
An additional eight lethal injections have been planned so far for 2025.
Hanging
Hanging was last used in 1996 and was most popular throughout the Wild West. The method is meant to be painless but can lead to prolonged breathing trouble
Up until the 1890s, hanging was the most common method of execution in the US, particularly famous in the Wild West.
But in 2025, it is only a legal execution method in Washington state, and this is only if lethal injection is either unavailable or ruled unconstitutional.
The last hanging execution was carried out in 1996 in Delaware for Billy Bailey, who was convicted of murdering elderly couple Gilbert and Clara Lambertson.
Hanging was the official method of execution in Delaware until 1986, and the gallows were disassembled entirely in 2003.
The method typically involves an inmate being weighed the day before and authorities having to perform a rehearsal with a sandbag the same weight as the inmate.
This is meant to determine how long the drop from the top of the gallows needs to be for a quick death.
During the execution, the inmate’s hands and feet are secured and they are blindfolded. Once the noose is placed around their neck, a trap door beneath them opens and the inmate falls through, breaking their neck.
While hanging is meant to provide an instant death, small errors can make it torturous.
If the rope is too short, for example, an inmate could be strangled instead of having their neck immediately broken. This could leave them gasping for air for up to 15 minutes.
In fact, throughout the 1800s, inmates were known to hang by their broken necks for up to 30 minutes before finally succumbing to asphyxiation.
Harold Hillman, an expert in executions at the University of Surrey, told NBC News: ‘Hanging is a very cruel way of killing people.
‘The fracture obstructs their breathing, and they are left gasping for breath.’
If inmates fall too far, they may pick up so much speed that the noose decapitates them. This would be an instant death.
Electric chair
Pictured above is an electric chair used by the South Carolina Department of Corrections. The last electric chair execution took place in 2020 in Tennessee
Around the time hanging became less common in the US, the electric chair came to take its place.
In 1881, a dentist named Dr Albert Southwick suggested using electrocution to execute inmates after he watched an elderly drunk man ‘painlessly’ die from touching an electric generator.
New York’s Electrical Execution Law was passed eight years later and Edward David, an electrician at Auburn Prison, was commissioned to build the world’s first electric chair.
On August 6, 1890, 30-year-old William Kemmler of New York became the first American killed via electric chair. A year earlier he had been convicted of murdering his wife Matilda ‘Tillie’ Ziegler.
However, the process was far from painless. The machine delivered 700 volts of electricity for only 17 seconds before the current failed. Even though witnesses reported smelling burned clothing and charred flesh, Kemmler was far from dead.
Anything over 50 volts is considered potentially deadly.
He underwent a second charge of 1,030 volts for two minutes. As he was confirmed dead, smoke wafted out of his head.
Since 1890, 4,374 electric chair executions have been performed in the US, the only country to have ever used the method.
The electric chair is no longer used as the sole execution method in any state, and the last one was in Tennessee in 2020.
The method is legal in nine states, and in many cases, the inmate can ask for it in place of lethal injection.
Nicholas Sutton, pictured here, was the last inmate executed via electric chair in Tennessee in 2020. He was sentenced to death in 1985 for stabbing fellow inmate Carl Estep
The method involves shaving and strapping a person to a chair with belts across their chest, groin, legs and arms. A metal skullcap-shaped electrode is attached to the scalp and forehead over a sponge moistened with saline.
The inmate is then blindfolded and the executioner pulls a handle to deliver between 500 and 2,000 volts of electricity for around 30 seconds. The exact amount depends on weight and how much the inmate is able to survive.
US Supreme Court Justice William Brennan, who opposed the death penalty, described electric chair executions in gruesome detail in 1986.
He said: ‘The prisoner’s eyeballs sometimes pop out and rest on [his] cheeks. The prisoner often defecates, urinates, and vomits blood and drool.
‘The body turns bright red as its temperature rises, and the prisoner’s flesh swells and his skin stretches to the point of breaking.
‘Sometimes the prisoner catches fire… Witnesses hear a loud and sustained sound like bacon frying, and the sickly sweet smell of burning flesh permeates the chamber.’
This happens because the intense electric current causes all muscles in the body to lose control, including those in the bladder and bowels. The body also thrashes so hard that multiple bones break.
The current also fries all nerves in the body, including those in the brain.
Robert H Kirschner, a forensic pathologist and deputy chief medical examiner of Cook County, Illinois, said: ‘The brain appears cooked in most cases.’
