First execution by lethal injection
The first execution by lethal injection takes place at the state penitentiary in Huntsville Texas.Charles Brooks Jr.convicted of murdering an auto mechanic received an intravenous injection of sodium pentathol the barbiturate that is known as a truth serum when administered in lesser doses.Texas the national leader in executions adopted the lethal injection procedure as a more humane method of carrying out its death sentences as opposed to the standard techniques of death by gas electrocution or hanging.
During the next decade 32 states the federal government and the U.S.military all took up the lethal injection method.After several years of practical development execution authorities adopted a lethal injection procedure in which three separate drugs are injected successively into the convicts bloodstream.The first drug sodium thiopental a barbiturate renders the prisoner unconscious the next pancuronium bromide a muscle relaxant paralyses the diaphragm and lungs and the third potassium chloride causes cardiac arrest and ensures the prisoners death.
