“Take Deep Breaths”: Medical Ethics and Visual Satire on Alabama’s Death Row

This paper approaches narrative criminology through the visual art produced by Carey Grayson prior to his execution by nitrogen gas in the state of Alabama in 2024. The art satirically represents Dr. Joseph Antognini, an anesthesiologist who testifies as an expert witness in favor of the safety of nitrogen gas as a method of execution. When studied through the lens of narrative sequencing and restorying, the satirical portraits by Grayson raise important ethical questions about the increasing involvement of medical professionals in executions, which undermines the Hippocratic oath these professionals take to “do no harm.” Grayson’s satire uses his own imminent execution as a window for exploring the absurdity of states’ experimentations with new methods as they attempt to establish compliance with the Eighth Amendment in the wake of botched executions related to lethal injection. We triangulate this art with transcripts of Antognini’s expert witness testimony in Grayson’s legal challenge to highlight the “medicalization” of executions in the U.S.