States botched more executions of Black prisoners. Experts think they know why

A study showed states made more mistakes when executing Black prisoners by lethal injection than they did with prisoners of other races. Execution workers and race experts said they're not surprised.A lethal injection gurney is seen at the at Nevada State Prison, a former penitentiary in Carson City, Nev., in 2022.A lethal injection gurney is seen at the at Nevada State Prison, a former penitentiary in Carson City, Nev., in 2022.

There is no standard definition of what constitutes a botched execution. For its analysis, Reprieve designated an execution as botched if it met certain criteria. Researchers checked documents and witness reports to confirm details like whether there was evidence that a prisoner made visible or audible expressions of pain, was still conscious after a drug was administered, or whether execution workers had struggled at length to find a prisoner's veins.Joe Nathan James Jr.

The Reprieve analysis is one of the first times that empirical evidence has indicated that racism extends even to the final step of the death penalty: the execution itself. While the study does not explain how or why states make more mistakes when executing Black prisoners, Foa said she thinks that the fact that Black people suffer from higher mortality rates and receive poorer medical treatment in the U.S should provide clues.

"You can't find a vein and you think, well, it really is hard to find veins in Black people, so I'm just going to keep sticking," he said. Jeanne Woodford, a former warden of the state prison in San Quentin, Calif., who oversaw four executions during her tenure, said something similar.Woodford was aware, though, of some execution workers who may have believed people of color might have been more difficult to inject with the lethal injection drugs, a common misconception.

He believes that was related to the correctional officers' fear and prejudice of Black people, something Hood says is common where he lives in Arkansas. The only times Hood said he heard execution workers discussing whether a prisoner would resist during the executions was when the person scheduled to be executed was a person of color. This may have had an impact on how Black prisoners were treated as they were put to death, he thinks.

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