Abstract
When New Jersey reinstated the death penalty in 1983, the state hadn’t conducted an execution in twenty years, so no one knew how to conduct an execution by lethal injection. Doctors at the state prison refused to participate, citing medical ethics that required them to “support life, not end it,” and that left prison officials thinking that they might have to conduct the executions themselves. “That is not an easy task for an amateur,” a reporter covering the quandary wrote. Unsure of what else do to, officials called upon Fred Leuchter, an engineer who had worked with a number of states to refurbish their electric chairs, to build an apparatus that could take the place of doctors: a lethal injection machine. ...
Document Type
Book Chapter
Publication Date
2025
ISBN
9781479832965
Recommended Citation
Corinna Barrett Lain, Secrets of the Killing State: The Medical Professional Mandate (NYU Press, 2025).
