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The highest level of punishment for committing crimes in the United States is death. Since 1976, lethal injection, or death by poison, has been the most common way the death penalty is enforced. In recent years it has become more difficult for prison systems to get access to these lethal poisons. States are trying new drug formulas that are not always successful. Listen to learn why pharmaceutical companies are refusing to sell drugs to prisons and how this is affecting the implementation of the death penalty.
NOTE: THERE IS A DISTURBING DESCRIPTION OF A LETHAL INJECTION EXECUTION AT THE BEGINNING OF THE STORY
Story Length: 5:19
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AIR DATE: 01/06/2015
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