Lethal Injections Summary

The article, “Cruel and Increasingly Unusual; Lethal Injections,” from The Economist, discusses the death sentence in the United States. The article explains that in the US, the most common method of execution is lethal injection, although the practice is becoming rare. In several cases, the contents of the syringe proved to be faulty and the article briefly describes the controversy across the U.S. concerning lethal injections. The article also uses Kelly Gissendaner, a convict who was sentenced to death by the state of Georgia, and examples of failed injections, to show that a multitude of errors can be made in the preparation of an execution. Once the mistakes are brought to the attention of people, “these logistical and moral problems may …show more content…
The article begins and ends dramatically, describing the final actions of Gissendaner, and uses the phrase “[she] observed the ghoulish regimen of the condemned” to describe Gissendaner’s final hours. The impression the reader gets of the author in the article is that he/she is against the death penalty. In the final sentence of the article, the author states, “…her case had already helped to show that there is no clean way to kill a person,” strengthening the statement that the author is not in favor of capital punishment. The structure of the article is primarily chronological order and follows the controversy of practicing lethal injections with scattered paragraphs of outside information. The paragraphs contain information concerning recent changes of laws regarding executions and descriptions of the public’s opinions when it comes to capital punishment. Contradicting the sequential order, the last paragraph has a heading titled “Last Rites” and vividly describes the remaining minutes before Gissendaner’s death. The author utilizes their diction and structure to further inform the reader about lethal