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Published by: NYU Press
Release Date: April 22, 2025
Pages: 384
ISBN13: 978-1479832965

 
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 is the most “humane” form of capital punishment. In reality, not one of these statements is true.

Secrets of the Killing State pulls back the curtain of secrecy, presenting a view of lethal injection that states have worked hard to hide. The story of lethal injection is a story of state law-breaking and cover-ups, fake science and torturous drugs, gross incompetence by woefully inept executioners, and a stunning state indifference to the plight of the prisoners who are executed.

Secrets of the Killing State uses shocking revelations about lethal injection to shine a light on the American death penalty more broadly, proving time and again that the state at its most powerful moment is also the state at its worst. This engaging, meticulously researched, and utterly compelling exposé aims to prick the American conscience, spark outrage, and serve as a catalyst for rethinking the propriety of state killing itself.

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.

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Praise for Secrets of the Killing State

"A compelling, thoroughly researched, brilliantly written investigation of how the federal government and many state governments have used their vast power and resources to needlessly kill imprisoned people whose lives may depend on the moral outrage of a nation that dares to look more closely at lethal injection and the death penalty. Disturbing, devastating and an urgent must read."

―Bryan Stevenson, Founder and Executive Director of the Equal Justice Initiative

"This meticulously researched and brilliant exposé of the gruesome failure of lethal injection as a humane mode of execution teaches a broader and more basic lesson. The ostensible quest for a painless way to implement capital punishment is in reality a doomed search for a placebo to stifle government officials’ and the public’s qualms of conscience that might otherwise rebel at killing helpless prisoners. Lain has written an indictment of the death penalty that will stand on history’s bookshelf right up there with the enduring works of Koestler and Camus."
―Anthony G. Amsterdam, New York University

"This is the book I have been waiting for―the book that lays bare for all to see the atrocities of what states are doing in our name. Secrets of the Killing State is an incredibly important book that will change hearts and minds. People think lethal injection is humane. This book proves beyond any doubt that it is not, and convincingly shows that the state should not be trusted with the awesome power over life and death. That belongs to God alone."
―Sister Helen Prejean, author of Dead Man Walking

"Lain is the nation's preeminent expert on lethal injection as a mode of execution. Her encyclopedic and horrifying account of lethal injection's secret history and tortuous effects should be hard to read, but it is actually hard to put down. Lain's indignation and disbelief at the depths of official misfeasance and indifference to human suffering leap from the pages. This is a must read for anyone who seeks to understand the administration of the American death penalty."
―Carol S. Steiker, co-author of Courting Death: The Supreme Court and Capital Punishment

"Secrets of the Killing State is in the great tradition of The Jungle―unmasking utter systemic incompetence, mendacity, secrecy, and indifference to cruelty by those with the power to do right. A must-read to know what the state is doing in our name."
―Michael Meltsner, Northeastern University

"If there ever was a genuine search for a “humane execution”, it has come to an ignominious end. In Secrets of the Killing State Professor Corinna Lain’s meticulous examination of the history, secrecy, guesswork, bluster, pseudo-science, pretense and deceit that contaminate the decades-long effort to promote “lethal injection” as humane exposes the entire ghastly killing process for the damnable, torturous villainy that it is. This is not a simple case of the blind leading the blind; this is intentionality steering incompetence. It is brute, murderous stupidity masquerading as justice."
―Mike Farrell, President of Death Penalty Focus

"Pulling back the rug shrouding lethal injection’s dirty secrets, Corinna Barrett Lain, a preeminent legal scholar, offers a compelling and accessible account of this country’s purportedly “humane” method of execution and the disturbing lengths officials undertake to preserve it. This book is a must-read for anyone concerned about the death penalty’s future and purpose."
―Deborah M. Denno, author of Biology and Violence: From Birth to Adulthood

"This brilliant and important book will be nothing short of a death penalty classic. Lain has used the story of lethal injection to tell a larger story about the contemporary death penalty. This will be one of the best books written about the death penalty in a very long time. In truth, I couldn't put it down."
―Austin Sarat, author of Lethal Injection and the False Promise of Human Execution

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