A 59-year-old-woman was executed by lethal injection Wednesday in Texas amid controversy over whether lethal injection is cruel and unusual punishment.
Suzanne Basso is the 14th woman put to death since capital punishment resumed in 1976; nearly 1,400 men have been put to death. There are approximately 60 women currently on death row in the U.S
Basso was sentenced to death in 1998 for killing a mentally disabled man after prosecutors argued she lured the man to Texas from New Jersey with the promise of marriage. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals refused to stop her scheduled execution.
The state of Texas used a single drug rather than a three-drug cocktail that was used up until 2012, when export bans by drug manufacturers created massive shortages of the drugs. A report by The Guardian found that executions using the new method take on average twice as long as they did with the old method.
