Risk of Choking to Death on One’s Own Blood Is Not Cruel and Unusual Punishment

Missouri began executing inmates in 1810 by hanging Peter Johnson, a man accused of murder. Since Johnson’s execution, Missouri executed 374 inmates between 1810 and 2019. Hanging was the most common method of execution in Missouri until 1936. Lethal gas was first used in Missouri in 1937 and became the most common execution method until 1987, when lethal injection took over as the predominant method