It Could Happen Here - The Shady Business of Lethal Injection: Out of Sight, Out of Mind

Episode Date: November 5, 2025

In the second episode of the lethal injection series, Steve Monacelli and Michael Phillips interview Dick Reavis, a journalist who witnessed the world’s first execution by lethal injection, that of Charlie Brooks in Texas in 1982. They report on how the lethal injection method was improvised after a Dallas reporter won a temporary court order allowing television stations to broadcast executions. Worried that a televised electrocution might turn the public against the death penalty, Texas politicians instead approved lethal injection. An Oklahoma coroner who admitted he had no expertise in chemistry and knew a lot about dead bodies but not “how to get them that way,” improvised the three-drug protocol eventually used by all death-penalty states, with horrifying results. Then, Monacelli and Phillips interview law professor Corinna Lain, who says that rather than a supposedly painless death, lethal injection is more like a slow drowning. Sources: Corinna Barrett Lain, Secrets of the Killing State: The Untold Story of Lethal Injection (New York: New York University Press, 2025.) Dick Reavis, “Charlie Brooks’ Last Words,” Texas Monthly (February 1983.) See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. I'm Robert Smith, and this is Jacob Goldstein, and we used to host a show called Planet Money. And now we're back making this new podcast called Business History about the best ideas and people and businesses in history. And some of the worst people, horrible ideas, and destructive companies in the history of business. First episode, how Southwest Airlines use cheap seats and free whiskey to fight its way into the airlines. The most Texas story ever. Listen to Business History on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, I'm Cal Penn, and on my new podcast, here we go again.

We'll take today's trends and headlines and ask, why does history keep repeating itself? Each week, I'm calling up my friends, like Bill Nye, Lily Singh, and Pete Buttigieg, to talk about everything from the space race to movie remakes to psychedelics. Put another way, are you high? Look, the world can seem pretty scary right now. But my goal here is for you to listen and feel a little better about the future. Listen and subscribe to Here We Go Again with Cal Penn on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I knew it was a bomb the second that it exploded. I felt it ripped through me. In season two of Rip Current, we ask, who tried to kill Judy Berry and why?

They were climbing trees and they were sabotaging logging equipment in the woods. She received death threats before the bombing. You receive more threats after the bombing. I think that this is a deliberate attempt to sabotage our movement. Episodes of Rip Current Season 2 are available now. Listen on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The show was ahead of its time to represent a black family in ways the television hadn't shown before. Exactly.

It's Telma Hopkins, also known as Aunt Rachel. And I'm Kelly Williams or Laura Winslow. On our podcast, welcome to the family with Telma and Kelly. We're re-watching every episode. of Family Matters. We'll share behind-the-scenes stories about making the show. Yeah, we'll even bring in some special guests to spill some tea. Listen to welcome to the family with Telma and Kelly on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. A warning. This episode includes violent content, which some listeners might find disturbing.

I'm Michael Phillips, an historian and the author of a history of race, in Dallas called White Metropolis, and the co-author, with longtime journalist Betsy Freeoff of the history of eugenics in Texas called The Purifying Knife. And I'm Stephen Monticelli. I'm an investigative reporter who specializes in political extremism and far-right internet culture, and I contribute to outlets like the Texas Observer, the Barb Blyer, and more. In the last episode, we began exploring the shady history behind the most popular form of capital punishment in the United States, lethal injection. We described how one after another execution by hanging, then the electric chair, and then the gas chamber was touted as cleanest, quickest, most modern and painless way to put a person to death.

Each method, however, proved more violent and gruesome than previously expected. In order to prevent a groundswell of opposition to the death penalty, politicians responded by abolishing public executions in the 1970s latched on to lethal injection as the newest, gentlest, and kindest method of state killing. As discussed in the first episode, the lethal injection protocol was designed by an Oklahoma coroner, Dr. Stephen Crawford,

who once admitted to an interviewer that, although he was an expert in dead bodies, he didn't know how to get him that way. authorities turned to Crawford because doctors, who dealt with living bodies, wanted nothing to do with executions. So Crawford designed a three drug protocol for executions that he made up pretty much out of thin air, reasoning that if one deadly drug was good for killing, then three drugs would be even better. The problem was that the three drugs counteract each other and would result in longer executions and in deaths that resembled slow drowning. Crawford did no homework, and neither did the more than 30 states that eventually adopted. adopted lethal injection as a preferred method of execution.

This occurred after the Supreme Court brought the death penalty back to life with its 1976 Greg v. Georgia decision, following a 10-year pause. It would not be until December 7, 1982, the state of Texas carried out the first execution by lethal injection in the world. In this episode, we'll talk to a journalist Dick Revis to witness Brooks' execution. The one thing I noticed was that There were a half dozen or more lawmen in there who had on cowboy hats. They did not remove when Charlie was killed.

And I also thought that wasn't quite right. But in any case, I don't recall anybody saying anything. We were silent while all of this was going on. And Charlie only spoke to say, allow who I. fire and knew he was dying when that happened. It was obvious that he was scared to death. Revis told us that Brooks, as he recalled it, seemingly drifted off to sleep. But that's not all that may have been occurring. According to Professor Karina Lane, the author of the recently published book, Secrets of the Killing State, who you heard from in the first episode, something very

different was likely going on in Brooks' mind and body. According to Lane, Brooks was slowly suffocating. Medical experts, Lane said, believe that those executed with lethal injections are often not fully unconscious and that the paralytic drugs fed into their veins prevent them from fully communicating their suffering

even as they may be aware of it. The courts that have heard this medical testimony, there was a court in Ohio and said, yeah, you know, all of the medical experts are describing acute pulmonary edema as a drowning from within. It is, you can't catch your breath. You've got fluid coming into your lungs, and you can't do anything about it.

And the court said, you know, this is the sensation akin to waterboarding. You know, we're waterboarding people to death. That's what we're actually doing. In this episode, we'll also talk about how the modern death penalty peaked in the 1990s and why pressure from drug manufacturers and activists led not only to a decline in executions, but the revival in some states of some very old forms of execution, such as the electric chair and the firing squad. It's a fascinating but often frightening story

and one that will have to continue after perhaps less gripping messages from our sponsors. I'm Robert Smith. This is Jacob Goldstein, and we used to host a show called Planet Money. And now we're back making this new podcast called Business History about the best ideas and people and businesses in history. And some of the worst people, horrible ideas, and destructive companies in the history of business. Having a genius idea without a need for it is nothing. It's like not having it at all.

It's a very simple, elegant lesson. Make something people want. First episode, how Southwest Airlines use cheap seats and free whiskey to fight its way into the airline business. The Most Texas Story Ever. There's a lot of mavericks in that story. We're going to have mavericks on the show. We're going to have plenty of robber barons. So many robber barons.

And you know what? They're not all bad. And we'll talk about some of the classic great moments of famous business geniuses, along with some of the darker moments that often get overlooked. Like Thomas Edison and the electric chair. Listen to business history on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Here we go. Hey, I'm Kelpen.

And on my new podcast, here we go again. We'll take today's trends and headlines and ask, why does history keep repeating itself? You may know me as the second hottest actor from the Harold and Kumar movies, but I'm also an author, a White House staffer, and as of like 15 seconds ago, a podcast host. Along the way, I've made some friends

who are experts in science, politics, and pop culture. And each week, one of them will be joining me to answer my burning questions. Like, are we heading towards another, financial crash like in 08? Is non-monogamy back in style? And how come there's never a gate ready for your flight when it lands like two minutes early? We've got guests like Pete Buttigieg, Stacey Abrams, Lily Singh, and Bill Nye. When you start weaponizing outer space, things can potentially go really wrong. Look, the world can seem pretty scary right now, because it is. But my

goal here is for you to listen and feel a little better about the future. Listen and subscribe to Here we go again with Cal Penn on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. May 24th, 1990, a pipe bomb explodes in the front seat of environmental activist Judy Berry's car. I knew it was a bomb the second that it exploded. I felt it ripped through me with just a force more powerful and terrible than anything that I could describe. In season two of RipCurrent, we ask, who tried to kill Judy Barry? And why? She received death threats before the bombing.

She received more threats after the bombing. The man and woman who were heard had planned to lead a summer of militant protest against logging practices in Northern California. They were climbing trees and they were sabotaging logging equipment in the woods. The timber industry, I mean, it was the number one industry in the area, but more than it was the culture. It was the way of life. I think that this is a deliberate attempt to sabotage our movement.

Episodes of Rip Current Season 2 are available. Now. Listen on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, I'm Kelly, and some of you may know me as Laura Winslow. And I'm Telma, also known as Aunt Rachel. If those names ring a bell, then you probably are familiar with the show that we were both on back in the 90s called Family Matters. Kelly and I have done a lot of things and played a lot of roles over the years. But both of us are just so proud to have been part of Family Matters. Did you know that we were one of the longest running sitcoms with a black cast? When we were making the show, there were so many moments filled the joy and laughter and cut up that I will never forget. Oh, girl, you got that right.

The look that you all give me is so black. All black people know about the look. On each episode of Welcome to the Family, we'll share personal reflections about making the show. Yeah, we'll even bring in part of the cast and some other special guests to join in the fun and spill some tea. Listen to Welcome to the Family with Telma and Kelly on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Big changes came to the death penalty in Texas in 1923. Before then, hangings were carried out by sheriffs in the counties where the murderers, rapes, and other crimes committed by the prisoner took place. Many of the sheriffs were inexperienced at hanging and goring mishaps took place.

Texas' last public execution unfolded on August 31st, 1923, when African-American Nathan Lee was hanged before 150 spectators in Brazoria County. From 1900 to 1920, close to 70% of the inmates executed in Texas were African-American. In 1923, Texas sought to modernize and bring industrial efficiency to state killing. All executions henceforth would be carried out at the state prison in Huntsville, and prisoners would die in an electric chair. Locals gave it a glib name. Old Sparky. The state's new killing machine got a workout the day it debuted February 8, 1925.

Texas executed five prisoners that day, all black men. Between that date and July 30th, 1964, when the state electrocuted Joseph Johnson, a man convicted a fatally shooting a store owner during a robbery. Texas sent 361 inmates to the electric chair. African Americans made up 63% of the prisoners who died in that chair, while 7% of those who died in the electric chair were Mexican-American. Texas politicians insisted that their tough-on-crime policies served as a deterrent. But in fact, from 1933 to 1964, the year Joseph Johnson was executed, the murder rate in Texas was 12.7 per 100,000 people,

the eight highest in the United States. Nevertheless, Texas leaders have continued to justify the death penalty in spite of its seemingly negligible impact on the state's violent culture. And the violence of capital punishment was about performative toughness, not about stopping future murders, as a reporter who witnessed a hanging laments in the film in cold blood. And then, next one, next year, same thing will happen again. Maybe this would help to stop it.

Never had. After Johnson, Texas didn't execute another inmate for 18 years. Following the Greg v. Georgia decision, Texas faced a potential public relations disaster. As we mentioned last episode, Dallas television reporter Tony Garrett filed suit to allow television cameras to film executions. And a federal district court granted a preliminary injunction in the reporter's favor. That injunction was later overturned, but under the Texas Capitol Dome, there was worry about what would happen to support for the death penalty if an electrocution was broadcast live. The legislator who wrote Texas' new death penalty law of the Gregg decision

said he was, quote, repulsed by the idea of an electrocution taking place in someone's living room. Leithel injection, as Professor Lane had put it, had visual appeal because it would resemble healthful medical procedures and because, quote, states have been euthanizing pets with pentode barbitol since the 1930s. Animals are typically put to sleep with a two drug protocol. First, a sedative, and then the drug that does the deed. But the three drug protocol that would be adopted by most states that allowed capital punishment produced nightmarish results that were typically invisible to witnesses. States typically allowed family members of the crime victim to attend executions and the condemned also got to choose witnesses. In the early days of Texas's

reborn death penalty, the state's populist Democratic Attorney General Jim Maddox liked to make a show of attending each execution. And though much of the death penalty process has been shrouded in secrecy, such as who is providing the lethal chemicals, states also allowed reporters to attend executions so that they could serve as the eyes and ears of the public. In his younger days, Dick Revis was a civil rights activist who served time in Alabama jail for his efforts to secure voting rights for African Americans. Revis became a journalist, And by the early 1980s, he was a frequent contributor to Texas Monthly, one of the state's premier investigative publications. In 1982, he got the chance to witness an event that it never happened in the United States or perhaps even the world.

The Texas Department of Corrections would soon pioneer the use of lethal injection, although the first person to be put to death in this manner was still unclear. I recall a meeting with an editor and they said, And somehow they told me that there's a lady at the capital or a lady in the government in Austin, which is where I was living then, who was in charge of scheduling the executions. So I called her up and she said, well, she didn't have any unscheduled, but she could give me the names of it was either four or five people who would be first. and one of them was candy man, a fellow who poisoned his own child, putting poisoned in some candy at Halloween.

Revis is referring to Ronald Clark O'Brien, a Houston area optician who fell into debt. He was $100,000 deep. So he bought a life insurance policy on his eight-year-old son and daughter before he prepared five pixie sticks poisoned with potassium cyanide. And on Halloween night in 1974, he went trick-or-treating with his children, a neighbor, and that man's two children. The group went to an abandoned house and knocked on the door, and when no one answered, O'Brien convinced the rest of the group to move on. He caught up with them later and claimed that someone had, in fact, answered the door, and then he handed out four of the poisoned candies to the children.

When the O'Brien's returned home, the killer handed the fifth pixie stick to a neighborhood child. Later that night, O'Brien told his children that they could enjoy one candy from the evening, and he urged them to choose the pixie sticks. And when his child Timothy complained that candy tasted bitter, O'Brien gave him Kool-Aid to wash down the poison. Timothy started vomiting and died on the way to the hospital. None of the other children tried the poison candy that night. O'Brien claimed that a malevolent stranger had poisoned the candy,

and he sang at his son's funeral. His story fell apart, however, when the police discovered the life insurance policies, when O'Brien was unable to identify the house where he had been supposedly handed the pixie sticks, and when the cops found out that O'Brien had purchased cyanide from a chemical store in Houston. A jury sentenced him to death on June 3, 1975. The murder created a lasting national legacy, sparking paranoia about the safety of trick-or-treating. The state of Texas knew that executing O'Brien would be politically popular and would probably boost support for the death penalty. Not knowing which resident of Texas's death row would be strapped to the gurney first, Revis ended up interviewing all but one inmate on the list he had been given. The appeals process, however, is unpredictable, and a Fort Worth man, known for most of his life as Charlie Brooks would end up winning the dubious honor of being the first to be put to death by lethal injection. He was convicted for the fatal shooting of a 26-year-old mechanic, David Gregory, during a 1976 robbery.

By the time Revis interviewed him, Brooks had converted to Islam and taken the name Sharif Ahmad Abdul Rahim. That is the name we will use referring to him for the rest of the episode. Abdul Rahim had committed the robbery with another man, Woody Lords. He posed to someone wanting to buy a used car and asked to take a test drive. Gregory agreed to ride with him. Abdul Rahim picked up Lourdes. The pair threw Gregory in a car trunk, drove him to a ramshackle motel,

tied him to a chair and taped his mouth shut. Abdulrahim and Lourdes accused each other of firing the fatal shot. No weapon was ever found. Lourdes eventually received the death penalty, but after that was overturned, he reached an agreement with prosecutors and received a 40-year sentence.

He would end up serving only 11. The disparity in sentencing is one of the defining features of how capital punishment is carried out, even after Greg v. Georgia had supposedly addressed that issue. Shortly before his execution, Abdulrahim insisted on his innocence, but according to Revis, the condemned man was lying. Revis described to us his relationship with Abdulrahim, aka Charlie Brooks. Charlie was very alert, fast on his feet, engaged. was not moping around

sad. He had a sense of humor. He told me in the first interview I had with him that he was innocent and that this was racial discrimination that they executed more blacks

than whites. And I told him, oh, what you want us for them to execute more white people, huh? And that's stunning because I think no one had ever said that to him, but that would do away with racial discrimination, and there's lots of white people need executing, too, was my way of thinking. And he didn't get mad at me or anything. He kind of

laughed at it himself after he paused to understand the question. Then he kind of laughed at it himself. But I would say he was, even until they got him strapped down, He was in control of his own body. His mind was in great shape. He lied to me about whether or not he was innocent. Brooks told Revis that although the gun went off, he didn't pull the trigger. It was an accident.

At some point, I got him to say that, oh, the gun went off. And I went and pulled the transcript of his criminal. trial. The gun was a revolver, not an automatic. Revolver's don't go off. To test that theory, I even took one I had and banged it on a table while it was loaded and all, and nothing happened. Revolvers don't go off until they've been caught. Unless they've been cocked, they can't go off. We'll return to the story of the world's first execution by lethal injection and the deceptive way it was used to win public support for capital punishment after this lovely ad break.

I'm Robert Smith. This is Jacob Goldstein, and we used to host a show called Planet Money. And now we're back making this new podcast called Business History about the best ideas and people and businesses in history. and some of the worst people, horrible ideas, and destructive companies in the history of business. Having a genius idea without a need for it is nothing. It's like not having it at all. It's a very simple, elegant lesson.

Make something people want. First episode, how Southwest Airlines use cheap seats and free whiskey to fight its way into the airline business. The most Texas story ever. There's a lot of mavericks in that story. We're going to have mavericks on the show. We're going to have plenty of robber barons. so many robber barons. And you know what? They're not all bad. And we'll talk about some of the classic great moments of famous business geniuses, along with some of the darker moments that

often get overlooked. Like Thomas Edison and the electric chair. Listen to business history on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Here we go. Hey, I'm Cal Penn. And on my new podcast, Here We Go again, we'll take today's trends and headlines and ask, why does history keep repeating itself? You may know me as the second hottest actor from the Harold and Kumar movies, but I'm also an author, a White House staffer, and as of like 15 seconds ago, a podcast host. Along the way, I've made some friends who are experts in science, politics, and pop culture. And each week, one of them will be joining me to answer my burning

questions. Like, are we heading towards another financial crash like in 08? Is non-monogamy back in style? And how come there's never a gate ready for your flight when it lands like two minutes early? We've got guests like Pete Buttigieg, Stacey Abrams, Lily Singh, and Bill Nye. When you start weaponizing outer space, things can potentially go really wrong. Look, the world can seem pretty scary right now, because it is. But my goal here is for you to listen and feel a little better about the future. Listen and subscribe to here we go again with Cal Penn on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. May 24th, 1990, a pipe bomb explodes in the front seat of environmental activist Judy Berry's car.

I knew it was a bomb the second that it exploded. I felt it ripped through me with just a force more powerful and terrible than anything that I could describe. In season two of Rip Current, we ask, who tried to kill Judy Barry? And why? She received death threats before the bombing. She received more threats after the bombing. The man and woman who were heard had planned to lead a summer of militant protest against logging practices in Northern California. They were climbing trees and they were sabotaging logging equipment in the woods. The timber industry, I mean, it was the number one industry in the area, but more than it was the culture.

It was the way of life. I think that this is a deliberate attempt to sabotage our movement. Episodes of Rip Current Season 2 are available now. Listen on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, I'm Kelly, and some of you may know me as Laura Winslow. And I'm Telma, also known as Aunt Rachel. If those names ring a bell, then you probably are familiar with the show that we were both on back in the 90s called Family Matters. Kelly and I have done a lot of things and played a lot of roles over the years, but both of us are just so proud to have been part of Family Matters.

Did you know that we were one of the longest running sitcoms with the black cast? When we were making the show, there were so many moments filled the joy and laughter and cut up that I will never forget. Oh, girl, you got that right. The look that you all give me is so black. All black people know about the look. On each episode of Welcome to the Family, we'll share personal reflections about making the show. Yeah, we'll even bring in part of the cast and some other special guests to join in the fun and spill some tea. Listen to Welcome to the Family with Telma and Kelly on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

There was a little bit of last minute drama, a zero hour for the execution of Charlie Brooks, aka Abdulrahim, approached. The Supreme Court rejected his appeal for the last time. Shortly before the execution was scheduled, began, Jack Strickland, the prosecutor in Abdul Rahim's murder trial had second thoughts about the differences between the condemned man's sentence and that of his accomplice. Shriclin testified on Abdul Rahim's behalf, but to no avail. The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals said the defense team had presented no new information that would justify a stay of execution. Just after midnight, State Attorney General Mark White called officials in Huntsville and told them that the historic execution could begin. From 1982, the year of Abdulrahem's execution until 2011, Texas allowed prisoners facing executions a choice of a last meal of their choosing.

Abdulrahim's request, however, was rejected. He told me that for his last meal, he wanted fried shrimp and oysters. And he said he had told the authorities that that's what he wanted for his last meal. When I got down there, I was told that there was no shellfish in the prison system's kitchens. And Charlie had to pick. He finally picked steak in Beach Cobbler. But I felt bad about that because the prison people knew that they could go to the grocery store and buy whatever Charlie wanted. And they didn't do it.

and it was sort of, I thought it was an indignity, they inflicted on him. So when I went down for the execution, I went down in the afternoon. Execution was that night. I went out and laid fish. Just, how do you say? I don't know because of the situation. Texas would end this final meal for prisoners on death row in 2011. That's because of Lawrence Russell Brewer, who was one of three white supremacists who chained

an African-American man, James Bird, to the back of a car in Jasper, Texas, and dragged him to death on June 7, 1998. As a last act of bitter defiance on the date of Brewer's execution, September 21st, 2011, Brewer ordered a last meal that included two chicken-fried steaks, a triple meat-bacon cheeseburger, fried okra, a pound of barbecue, three fajitas, a meat lover's pizza, a pint of ice cream, and a slab of peanut butter fudge with crust of peanuts. When he received all the food, he refused to touch a bite. A state senator, John Whitmire, complained bitterly at the waste and expense lavished on such an infamous killer, and prison officials immediately

changed the policy. Today, those facing execution are now only fed the same meal other prisoners receive that day. Revis believes that the process of being strapped down to a hospital like Gurney is humiliating to those being executed. Men die with more dignity when they're on their feet, for example, is walking to a scaffold when they still feel in control of their lives. The hardest thing about lethal injections is that they strap you down. where you can't move, and you're sitting there absolutely helpless until they fill the drugstack effect.

Revis described the atmosphere in the death chamber as Abdul Rahim was executed as tense and quiet. A prison girlfriend, as Revis describes her, Vanessa Sapp was present, as were numerous officials. First of all, the room is too small. My recollection is. There was a circular set of chairs reading out 10 feet, 20 feet in a curve. It may have been a corner, but it was barely room to hold the lawmen who wanted to witness the execution. And Vanessa Sapp and three reporters. His wife was not present. She didn't want to be, and she didn't want kids to see it.

As for the audience's reaction, I don't recall that there was anything dramatic. No, I'd seen more routine. Inspired by the story of Carol Chessman, the author and rapist executed in the gas chamber in 1960, who worked out a signal he could send to reporters if he was suffering during execution. Revis and Abdulrahim worked out a similar arrangement. If Abdulrahim was suffering as he was dying, he would shake his head. Revis would later regret making that arrangement. I interviewed him before the execution, and we came up with an idea.

Unfortunately, it was mine, that if he felt pain while he was dying, that he should shake his head. So I decided. and I say it's unfortunate because, as things were, we were unable to, I was unable to determine this if he was giving me that signal. To Revis, it appeared that Abdul Rahim had simply drifted off to sleep. He seemed to die peacefully. I had to put down a dog a couple of years ago or had the dog put down, and I was with him while that happened.

And I couldn't, how do you say? After seeing those two things, I said, I wish I could die that way. And there was no evidence with my dog, for example, that there was any pain. It was like I put him to sleep. And I think that's what they did with Charlie, but it would take a doctor to know.

Of course, Abdulrahim's death was the first of its kind. As we mentioned last time, the three drug protocol that was used by most states over the last three decades was concocted out of thin air by someone no expertise on the effect of these drugs together on the human body. Abdulrahim's execution was a medical experiment conducted with no prior research. Professor Lane said that since Abdulaheim's execution, doctors have had a chance to perform autopsies on those executed by the trial. by lethal injection, and witnesses have heard the cries of those who are able to speak while dying on the gurney. You know, the state experts is saying, oh, this first drug, you're going to be 99.99% of the public would be, you know, out and dead within a minute. You don't even have to worry about those other super torturous drugs. And it's like, yeah, that's not what was happening.

They said they would stop breathing within a minute, and there was some pretty prominent litigation in the Borales case out in California, where they looked at the executions by lethal injection and said over half of them, they actually did not stop breathing within a minute. In fact, it was eight and nine minutes, and it did not kill them within two minutes of injecting that third drug, which is called potassium chloride, but it's referred to as liquid fire. And it, it chemically burns the veins as it raises to the heart where it induces a cardiac arrest. So they're like, you know, the experts like, oh, you know, that it's going to bring death in two minutes. That didn't happen. Like none of this was happening as the state and the state's experts were so confidently just saying. And it turns out, you know, no one had ever studied. these drugs in these amounts. Nobody had ever injected these drugs in these amounts into people. This is not what was used. I mean, that's interesting, too. Like, this is not the drug that was used to euthanized pets. This is not the drug that was used for physician assisted suicide. So it's like three totally different drugs. And, you know, not only is nobody studied or nobody knew how they would work, but nobody could have predicted.

how they would have worked together. As discussed in our last episode, the lethal injection that killed Abdul Rahim included three drugs, sodium theopenthal, the heavy sedative, panchoronium bromide meant to suffocate the prisoner, and potassium chloride meant to trigger a cardiac arrest. As Professor Lane wrote in her book, Secrets of the Killing State, because of one of the drugs used in three drug protocol,

the drugs work poorly when combined. Quote, the panchorium brookers, Bromide couples, the inability to breathe with the inability to struggle. They cannot fight or scream or even rive in pain. But all would seem calm on the surface. Texas's experiment in lethal injection was a political success, but for a while the novelty of the revived death penalty brought back memories of some public hangings. Students from nearby Sam Houston State University would show up and hold drunken parties outside the prison in Huntsville on the night of execution.

cheering loudly enough that they could be heard inside the death chamber. The night that Ronald Clark O'Brien, the infamous Candyman, who killed his son for insurance money, died, a crowd of about 300 celebrated outside, some yelling trick-or-treat at the scheduled time of the execution and pelting anti-death penalty protesters with candy. A huge cheer erupted when the officials of the Walls unit left, signaling that O'Brien had died,

a local bar through a Halloween party. Texas politicians made support for the death penalty central to their campaigns in this era. In the 1990 Democratic Party gubernatorial primary, former Texas Governor Mark White faced off against the state attorney general Jim Maddox and the eventual winner, State Treasurer Ann Richards. White and Maddox ran almost identical campaign ads, both walking past larger-than-life mugshots of murderers who were executed under their watch and claiming credit for meeting out justice. Consider this ad for White. These hardened criminals will never again murder, rape, or deal drugs. As governor, I made sure they received the ultimate punishment, death, and Texas is a safer place for it. But tough talk isn't enough.

The criminals know how to tangle up the courts and delay executions. To bring them to justice takes strength and dedication. Because if the governor flinches, they win. Only a governor can make executions happen. I did, and I will. The popularity of the death penalty was sealed for decades. Starting with Abdul Rahim, Texas has led the United States in state killing. As of September 27th, Texas had carried out 596 executions, more than 36% of all of the executions that have unfolded since the United States Supreme Court allowed the death penalty to resume in this country in 1976.

More than 40% of those executed in Texas since 1982 have been African American. Almost 30% had been Mexican-American. In 2024, Texas executed six people. Only one was white. Meanwhile, Texas put to death 63 prisoners who committed their crimes before they reached the age of 21. According to the Texas Coalition against the death penalty, since 1973, 18 people sent to Texas death row were later exonerated out of about 200 national. and the group argues that there is strong evidence that at least six put to death in Huntsville were actually innocent. Professor Lane argues that not only does death by lethal injection violate the Eighth Amendment's ban on cruel and unusual punishment,

but that most defendants facing the death penalty cannot afford adequate legal counsel and that an alarming number of those sent to death row and in some cases executed have been innocent. 200 people have been exonerated from death row, 200. And when you put that next to the 1600 executions that we've had in the modern era, what we really have is for every eight executions, there's one exoneration. That is a terrible, terrible number, right? For every eight times we kill someone, we almost killed the wrong person. And then there was this National Academy of Sciences report that came out. This is the Gross report, Samuel Gross, and they said, here's a conservative estimate. 4.1% of all people on death row today are factually innocent. 4.1%. That's 1 in 25.

According to the Texas Coalition against a death penalty, as of 2014, the total legal cost of executing a prisoner was nearly $4 million. as opposed to the $1.3 million spent to keep someone in prison for life. Lane argues that morality aside, capital punishment is catastrophically expensive. Imposing sentences of life without parole are what criminal justice experts call LWOP, would not only eliminate the risk of making an irreversible mistake by putting an innocent person to death, but also save taxpayers' money. This is an example. Here's Florida.

51 million. That is what Florida spends every year to maintain the death penalty over and above what it would cost to punish all first degree murderers with LWOP. And if you look at the costs that Florida spent and then look at the executions that they had, how much did it cost per execution, you know, to maintain the system and then, of course, the product of it, executions, what you're getting out of it per execution, $24 million. $24 million per execution. You know, and I'm a former prosecutor, and I just have to say, what could you do with $24 million? You know, I'd take $8 million and I'd put it into victim services. Now we're getting into the death penalty more broadly, but one of the things I've found, as I'm on this book tour and on the road, I'm talking to survivors. their family members have been slain. And one, a woman in Tennessee is particularly, she's coming to mind right now. And she said, listen, when my son was murdered, I couldn't get out of bed in the morning.

I was afraid I was going to lose my job. I was afraid I was going to lose my house. I needed therapy. I needed services. I needed childcare to help. I couldn't do that. My kids needed therapy. We had all of these needs.

And the state of Tennessee said, you know, Department of Mental Health said, we don't have that money. Sorry, you know. And so she said, we're spending it all. In fact, what she said is it's selfish. You're spending millions upon millions upon millions on death sentences and, you know, on the death penalty when it could actually go to the people who need it. Regardless of the financial costs, death by lethal injection has become so commonplace that executions rarely catch public attention. Nationally, 1,377 people have been put to death by some form of lethal injection since 1982. Those executed suffered not only because of the chemicals used, but because, as was predicted in 1890, medical professionals have refused to participate.

because of ethical rules prohibiting the harm of patients, doctors, and nurses, and paramedics generally refuse to administer the lethal cocktails used in death chambers. That task generally falls to seriously undertrained prison personnel, who are asked to secure an IV line for condemned prisoners who, often because of age, history of drug abuse, or other health problems, have veins that are difficult to access. Heavily muscled prisoners, those who are morbidly obese, and those with dark skin can also present challenges for the amateur phlebotom. trying to set up an execution.

Prisons sometimes lack the right equipment, such as the correct-sized syringes or proper tubing. Lethal injection drugs are pre-made and have to be mixed by personnel, not properly trained in chemistry, which results in errors in dosing. Often, people with any kind of medical competence who participate in executions are the ones with the shadiest ethical records. Professor Lane came across one case in which the state of Missouri lied on a doctor

who ignored ethical guidelines and participate in the capital punishment process. He was incorrectly mixing the chemicals, said that the prisoners were only receiving half the dose of the anesthesia meant to reduce the pain of the condemned as required by law. Dr. Lane shared the horrifying discoveries lawyers who condemned prisoners made about that particular doctor. They looked at the protocol that was litigated and authorized by a federal court. And it was five grams of this particular drug, and they looked at the execution logs of the last several, and states were using 2.5. And so, you know, they filed suit. That's half the anesthetic, you know. And the state, you know, wrote back and said, we are not using half the anesthetic. It must be the pharmacy logs that are wrong. We're going to track that down and figure out why they are wrong. But we assure you, we are not violating the protocol, we're doing the amount that was legally authorized. Well, they have to come back the next day and say, oh, actually, the logs were right. We were wrong. We were injecting half of the amount. And so the court gives the lawyers for the condemned

prisoners a limited deposition to question this doctor, behind a veil like they didn't know who he was, but to question them under oath. And, you know, they're like, why are you using half? And you said, well, I'm dyslexic. And so sometimes I make mistakes. And yet, Missouri stuck with them and said, no, we have every confidence in them. They lose that. The trial court, the federal court says, this guy can't be anywhere near.

Look, the whole thing, to the extent it's humane, requires you to meticulous, meticulously measure and mix chemicals in liquids. And so you can't have someone who just makes mistakes. And then in the meantime, investigative journalists, which, you know, I have to take my hat off. I tip my hat to investigative journalist. But they were like, gee, who is this, you know, dyslexic doctor? And they find out his identity. You know, he admits it's him. He had over 20 malpractice suits. He had had his hospital privileges revoked at two hospitals. He had been censured by the medical board. So, you know, you're asking someone to do something, to participate in something that is fundamentally

against your reason for being as a doctor. And, you know, from time to time, they find people, but I think they're outliers. What I have found is they are outliers not only on ethics, but in other ways, too. experts on capital punishment like Lane aren't comfortable with describing executions that go off script as quote botched even if it's a commonly used term no matter how the execution proceeds the end result is the same the inmate is dead however there is no question that killing people by lethal injection is so complicated and require so much skill on the part of the executioners that the process is typically far more agonizing than death penalty advocates tell the public according to the anti-capital punishment organization, the Death Penalty Information Center. Out of 19 executions in 2022, seven were botched, meaning that the death took far longer than expected, that prison personnel had to jab the condemned people multiple times to get an IV line working, or worse.

When Oklahoma executed Clayton Lockett on April 29, 2014, the state used an untested combination of three drugs. The sizes of the syringes and the amount of drugs used were wrong. Prison personnel made repeated mistakes as they tried to insert the needle for the IV. Even though the American Medical Association prohibits its members from participating in executions, a doctor was on hand for the Lockett fiasco. The physician tried but failed to insert an IV into the jugular vein in Lockett's neck. The doctor then performed a surgical procedure called a cut down,

which is a deep surgical incision through the skin, muscle, and fat performed to expose a central vein under Lockett's its clavicle. The procedure was bloody and also failed, and the execution then tried and failed to access a vein through Lockett's feet. Eventually, they tried to insert an IV through the femoral vein in the upper thigh, a procedure only the most skilled surgeons have mastered. Unfortunately, the available needle was the wrong length for it to work properly. Lockett reportedly was stoic throughout this repeated assault on his body. After an hour of this torture had passed, the execution team was finally able to inject the deadly drugs. Lockett groaned, convulsed, and at one point was asked, are you unconscious? According to witnesses, Lockett opened his eyes and said, no, I am not.

After appearing to fall asleep, he began to moan, arched his back, and kicked a foot before he strained against the straps holding him against the gurney, and he tried to get up. Lockett mumbled, something is wrong, oh man, and this shit is fucking up my mind. The prison warden ordered the blinds closed as the execution team scrambled. Swelling had developed where the IV had been inserted and was blocking the flow of the third and final lethal drug. The doctor was summoned to insert a needle in Lockett's other femoral vein, but Lockett was bleeding heavily and the blood backed up into the IV line.

Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallon had already decided to halt the execution, but by this point Lockett's heart had irreversibly slowed down. He subsequently died of heart failure. The entire execution from the first attempt to stick an IV in his veins to his death lasts at one hour and 47 minutes. That was one of the longest executions in American history. The state of Oklahoma later falsely claimed that Lockett had been unconscious the entire time. In 2022, another so-called botched lethal injection, that of Joe Nathan James and Alabama, lasted three hours. In Ohio and elsewhere, executions had to be abandoned

when the prison staff couldn't get an IV going. As we mentioned in the first episode, Reverend Jeff Hood is a priest under the old Catholic right, who by the time we interviewed had accompanied 10 men during their executions. He said that even the most professional execution is brutal, but that some states, because of a regrettable amount of practice, are much better at killing than others. I do think that some states know what they're doing more than others.

And I think that Texas knows what they're doing. You don't see botched or delayed or mishandled executions in Texas. They go very quickly, and when you talk to these guys, that's what they say they would prefer. If you're going to be executed, you would want it to go as quickly as possible. Yes, there are some executions that look horrific. There are other executions that don't go according to plan, but don't get a lot of attention. But they're all horrible. And I think they all have to be talked about as such.

Whether it's because of the awareness of the messy and undeniably painful executions, like those of Lockett and James, the more than 200 death row exonerations achieved by groups like the Innocence Project, the growing skepticism of law enforcement amongst young people, or the greater consciousness of how racism warps the entire criminal justice system. There's no question. that the death penalty is the least popular it has been in the past hundred years. Nor is there doubt that the rate of executions in the United States has dropped well below its peak

during the height of the war and crime under the Clinton administration. When, in 1999, 315 death sentences were handed down, or in 1996, when 98 prisoners were executed. In any case, deaths like lockets are bad for business, the pharmaceutical companies who have produced the drugs used in lethal injections. In the next and final episode of this three-part series on the shady business of lethal injection, we'll talk about how some states like Texas have been forced to turn to the black market or the so-called gray market to buy lethal drugs, as pharmaceutical companies have restricted

the purchase of those drugs for that purpose. We also talk to Jeff Hood about how the difficulty in obtaining those drugs has led states like Alabama to turn to one of the most gruesome forms of execution yet. And we'll also hear the story of race Bouillon, a victim of a hate crime who fought to prevent the execution of his white supremacist attacker. And finally, we'll explore whether the death penalty might be on its last legs in the United States. I'm Stephen Munchelli for It Could Happen Here.

Until next time, I'm Michael Phillips. Thanks for listening. It Could Happen Here is a production of Cool Zone Media. For more podcasts from Cool Zone Media, visit our website, Coolzonemedia.com, or check us out on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. You can now find sources for It Could Happen here listed directly in episode descriptions. Thanks for listening. In the heat of battle, your squad relies on you.

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Win the tech search. Power up at Lenovo.com. Lenovo, Lenovo. I'm Robert Smith, and this is Jacob Goldstein, and we used to host a show called Planet Money. And now we're back making this new podcast called Business History about the best ideas and people and businesses in history. And some of the worst

people, horrible ideas, and destructive companies in the history of business. First episode, how Southwest Airlines use cheap seats and free whiskey to fight its way into the airline is. The most Texas story ever. Listen to business history on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, I'm Cal Penn. And on my new podcast, here we go again.

We'll take today's trends and headlines and ask, why does history keep repeating itself? Each week, I'm calling up my friends, like Bill Nye, Lily. Singh and Pete Buttigieg to talk about everything from the space race to movie remakes to psychedelics. Put another way, are you high? Look, the world can seem pretty scary right now, but my goal here is for you to listen and feel a little better about the future. Listen and subscribe to here we go again with Cal Penn on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I knew it was a bomb the second that it exploded. I felt it ripped through me.

In season two of RipCurrent, we ask, who tried to kill Judy Berry and why? They were climbing trees and they were sabotaging logging equipment in the woods. She received death threats before the bombing. She received more threats after the bombing. I think that this is a deliberate attempt to sabotage our movement. Episodes of RipCurrent Season 2 are available now. Listen on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an IHeart Podcast.

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