On this day, Dec. 7, in 1982, Texas murderer Charles Brooks Jr. became the first condemned prisoner in the world to be executed by lethal injection.
Brooks was put to death for the 1976 kidnapping and murder of a Fort Worth mechanic.
Recommended Stories
After a final meal inside the redbrick unit at Huntsville, Brooks was wheeled on a stretcher into the death chamber. The execution team could not find a suitable vein and had to get help from a doctor.
At 12:09 a.m., the deadly dose was injected into Brooks’ body. At 12:16 a.m., he was pronounced dead.
The use of lethal injection was first proposed as a cheaper and more humane means of execution than past methods like electrocution, hanging, firing squad, gas chamber and beheading.
Death by needle is now the most common form of execution in 37 states that allow the death penalty. Every American execution in 2005 was by needle.
– Scott McCabe
