More Perfect: Cruel and Unusual

This week, we’re replaying the inaugural episode of More Perfect (first aired in 2016) we explore three little words embedded in the 8th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution: “cruel and unusual.” America has long wrestled with this concept in the context of our strongest punishment, the death penalty. A majority of “we the people” (61 percent, to be exact) are in favor of having it, but inside the Supreme Court, opinions have evolved over time in surprising ways. And outside of the court, the debate drove one woman in the UK to take on the U.S. death penalty system from Europe. It also caused states to resuscitate old methods used for executing prisoners on death row. And perhaps more than anything, it forced a conversation on what constitutes cruel and unusual punishment. In this episode, we also include a new conversation with Harvard law professor Carol Steiker and former death-row inmate Damien Nichols about the moment the death penalty finds itself in now. After the botched execution of Christa Pike, and with the government considering livestreaming a firing squad execution, how do we understand the death penalty in 2026? Special thanks to Claire Phillips, Nina Perry, Stephanie Jenkins, Ralph Dellapiana, Byrd Pinkerton, Elisabeth Semel, Christina Spaulding, Carol Steiker, Damien Nichols, and The Marshall Project EPISODE CREDITS: Update Reported by - Karen Duffin Update Produced by - Mona Madgavkar, and Matt Kielty with mixing help from - Jeremy Bloom and Arianne Wack Fact-checking by - Hilary Elkins Signup for our newsletter!! It includes short essays, recommendations, and details about other ways to interact with the show. Sign up (https://radiolab.org/newsletter)! Radiolab is supported by listeners like you. Support Radiolab by becoming a member of The Lab (https://members.radiolab.org/) today. Follow our show on Instagram , Twitter and Facebook @radiolab, and share your thoughts with us by emailing radiolab@wnyc.org . Leadership support for Radiolab’s science programming is provided by the Simons Foundation and the John Templeton Foundation. Foundational support for Radiolab was provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

November 6, 2026

Episode summary

This episode explores the complex history of the death penalty in America, specifically the rise and subsequent supply crisis of lethal injection drugs. It follows the investigation by Maya Foa into mystery drug suppliers and the legal and ethical battles that have led some states to consider returning to methods like the firing squad.

Takeaway 1Lethal injection was invented in 1977 as a more humane alternative to existing execution methods to satisfy Supreme Court requirements.

Takeaway 2The traditional lethal injection cocktail uses three drugs: an anesthetic to prevent pain, a paralytic to mask movement, and an acid to stop the heart.

Takeaway 3European pharmaceutical companies and governments have largely banned the export of drugs used for capital punishment, leading to a severe shortage in the US.

Takeaway 4Due to drug shortages, some states have experimented with unproven drug combinations, resulting in several botched executions since 2014.

Takeaway 5New death sentences have declined by 90% since the 1990s due to the availability of life without parole and the high cost of capital trials.

Follow the conversation

A Mystery in London

Karen Duffin introduces the story of Maya Foa, who began researching the origin of lethal injection drugs used in an Arizona execution.

The Drug Shortage

A nationwide shortage of sodium thiopental leads states to seek the drug from obscure international suppliers, including a driving school in West London.

The Global Export Ban

Maya Foa and the organization Reprieve successfully lobby European governments to implement export controls on drugs used for capital punishment.

The Invention of Lethal Injection

The history of how Bill Wiseman and Jay Chapman created the three-drug cocktail in Oklahoma in 1977 as a response to public demand and judicial pressure.

Botched Executions and Legal Fallout

The use of new, unverified drug combinations leads to horrific spectacles like the execution of Clayton Lockett, sparking a Supreme Court debate over the Eighth Amendment.

Return of the Firing Squad

Facing a lack of lethal drugs, some states like Utah consider reverting to the firing squad, which proponents argue is more honest and humane.

Read the episode

Transcribed from “More Perfect: Cruel and Unusual” by WNYC Studios, who holds all rights to the original and has not licensed or reviewed this page. Rights holders can request removal.

This transcript was generated by speech recognition and the summary and chapters by AI, so they can contain errors. BestPodcast is not affiliated with the creator.

Oh, wait, you're listening. Okay. All right. Okay. All right. You're listening to Radiolab. Radiolab from WNYC. See? Yeah. Hey, I'm Matt really. This is Radiolab, and we are going to start today with Karen. Hello, Matt. Sorry. Like, that's my cue. Perfect. Hello, Matt. Right on cue. So, Karen Duffin is a radio reporter. She's done stories for us here at Radiolab. She has worked at This American Life. She co-hosted Planet Money. But way back in 2016, she reported a story for our Supreme Court spinoff show called More Perfect.

And we were looking, yeah, at the Eighth Amendment, so cruel and unusual punishment, and whether the death penalty qualified for that. It wasn't that the first I think that was the first episode of More Perfect. It was the first episode of More Perfect, yeah. The inaugural episode. How fun. It was. Except it's about it's about death. Uh I don't know what you do for fun, Matt, but that's up to you. Um but the death penalty has been back in the news lately, right? Yeah. It has.

For a couple of reasons, actually. And they were almost kind of back to back. Good evening. I'm Nikki Batiste. We are coming on the air with a breaking news update in the September 30th, Tennessee tried to execute Christa Pike. A woman named Christa Pike. Hmm. who might have been the first woman executed in Tennessee in more than 200 years. Oh, wow. But The lethal injection pentobarbital Pentobarbital, which stops your breathing and your heart, had been administered, but Pike still had a heartbeat. The execution was botched.

Her attorney says she remains alive and in critical condition after the state administered two doses of pentobarbital intended to execute her. Oh, my gosh. She survived both of those. She lifted her head up and was looking around at one point. She said that there was a spot that was burning and hurting and asked if that was normal. Um none of none of it was normal. I covered all the executions last year and most of the ones this year we haven't seen anything like it. So, that was in September, the 30th, and then basically a week later No brainer.