Secrets of the Killing State
The Untold Story of Lethal Injection
by Corinna Barrett Lain
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Pub Date Apr 22 2025 | Archive Date Not set
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Description
Lethal injection is nothing like what people think. This is its untold story.
In the popular imagination, lethal injection is a slight pinch and a swift nodding off to forever-sleep. It is performed by well-qualified medical professionals. It is regulated and carefully conducted. And it usually provides a “humane” death. In reality, however, not one of those things is true.
Secrets of the Killing State pulls back the curtain on this clandestine punishment practice, presenting a view of lethal injection that states have worked hard to hide. Botched executions are a part of this story, but they are just the tip of the iceberg. For all the suffering that we see, there is also suffering that we don’t see. Indeed, the story told here is even bigger than the executions themselves, for behind the scenes is where it unfolds. Fake science, torturous drugs, inept executioners, prison problems, and decades of state secrecy have created an execution method hard-wired to go wrong in countless ways.
The story of lethal injection is a story of gross incompetence, law breaking, torturous deaths, and a stunning indifference to the way in which human beings die at the hands of the state. These are the secrets of the killing state—all that we know from litigation files, scientific studies, investigative journalism, autopsy reports, interviews, and scholarship across a number of fields. Death penalty expert Corinna Barrett Lain uses this groundbreaking journey into the dark reality of lethal injection to shine a light on the American death penalty more broadly and show that the state at its most powerful moment is also the state at its worst.
We are now over 45 years into the lethal injection era, and most Americans still have no idea what states are doing in their name. It’s time they found out.
Available Editions
| EDITION | Other Format |
| ISBN | 9781479832965 |
| PRICE | $29.95 (USD) |
| PAGES | 384 |
Available on NetGalley
Featured Reviews
Kathryn M, Reviewer
This was a fantastic concept and worked with the history element that I was looking for. Corinna Barrett Lain wrote this well and had that element that I was looking for in a history book.
Lee S, Reviewer
Thank you, NYU Press, for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
Mr. Book just finished Secrets Of The Killing State: The Untold Story of Lethal Injection, by Corinna Barrett Lain.
This book will be released on April 22, 2025.
This book was an excellent look at the horrors of lethal injection. The author made an extremely strong case for how inhumane that method of punishment is. There is no way that someone could read this book and not be convinced that it is the very definition of cruel and unusual punishment.
The book backs up its claims with both anectodal and medical evidence, along with plenty of information from people involved in the system.
Out of all of the books that I have read on the death penalty, this was the best one.
I give this book an A+ and inducted it into the Hall of Fame.
Goodreads and NetGalley require grades on a 1-5 star system. In my personal conversion system, an A+ equates to 5 stars. (A or A+: 5 stars, B+: 4 stars, B: 3 stars, C: 2 stars, D or F: 1 star).
This review has been posted at NetGalley, Goodreads and my blog, Mr. Book’s Book Reviews
I finished reading this on November 3, 2024.
Louise G, Reviewer
This is fascinating and exposes a level of detail which society should understand when accepting the death penalty as a viable response within the criminal, justice system. The author is pretty clear about which side of the fence they fall on from a moral perspective but delivers a comprehensive and balanced narrative overall.
Reviewer 1314040
Thanks to NetGalley and the author for granting me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
I went into this already knowing the basics of a lot of it. There's a difference, though, between knowing and having it all set out before you in such an easy-to-read way. The descriptions of what happens to the prisoners were horrifying and helped drive the point home, and the book flowed well. Some parts felt a bit repetitive, but I suppose that's par for the course when trying to write something like this.
If this is a topic you're interested in, I would absolutely recommend it. I look forward to being able to get a physical copy when the book is released.
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