Blood atonement. A nineteenth-century doctrine taught by some early leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, holding that certain sins were grave enough to require the shedding of the sinner’s own blood in addition to Christ’s atonement. Long repudiated by the modern LDS church, but historically linked to Utah’s cultural preference for the firing squad over methods that do not spill blood.
Chapman Protocol. The original three-drug lethal injection formula devised by Oklahoma medical examiner Jay Chapman in 1977: a barbiturate, a paralytic agent, and a drug to stop the heart. The template for nearly all subsequent American lethal injection protocols.
Eighth Amendment. The provision of the U.S. Constitution prohibiting cruel and unusual punishments, the primary constitutional basis for challenges to specific methods of execution.
Glossip standard. The legal test established in Glossip v. Gross (2015), requiring a prisoner challenging an execution method to identify a known and available alternative method that would significantly reduce the risk of severe pain, and to show that the state’s refusal to adopt it lacks a legitimate penological justification.
Judicial override. The practice, abolished in Alabama in 2017 but not made retroactive, by which a trial judge could impose a death sentence notwithstanding a jury’s recommendation of life. Kenneth Smith was sentenced to death this way after a jury voted eleven to one for life.
Moral disengagement. A psychological concept developed by Albert Bandura and applied to execution personnel by Osofsky, Bandura, and Zimbardo, describing the cognitive strategies people use to distance themselves from the moral weight of harmful acts they nonetheless perform. Diffusion of responsibility across a team is among these strategies, which is what the historical blank round was designed to supply.
Nitrogen hypoxia. An execution method in which pure nitrogen gas replaces breathable air in a mask fitted over the condemned person’s face, causing death through oxygen deprivation. First used by Alabama on Kenneth Smith in January 2024.
Pentobarbital. A barbiturate that became the standard lethal injection drug after European manufacturers restricted export of the older three-drug protocol’s components. Subject to its own supply shortages as manufacturers have increasingly refused to sell it for use in executions.
POST certification. Peace Officer Standards and Training certification, the credentialing requirement Idaho imposes on law enforcement officers seeking to serve on its firing squad.
*Ramirez* right. Shorthand, used in this book, for the right established in Ramirez v. Collier (2022): a condemned person’s right under federal religious liberty law to have a spiritual advisor present, praying audibly and, where requested, laying hands on him, during his execution.
Shield law. A statute, such as those enacted by South Carolina and Idaho, protecting the identities of execution team members, drug suppliers, or other participants from public disclosure. Idaho’s 2022 secrecy law withholds such information from the courts as well as the public; House Bill 803 (2026) extended the protection further and exempted execution procedures from Administrative Procedure Act review.