From [HERE] On March 10, Ohio carried out an execution using a method that had never been tried before in the U.S.—a continuous dose of the barbiturate pentobarbital was administered until death occurred for Johnnie Baston (left). Coincidentally, in an unrelated event, Ohio's electric chair was relegated to a museum, displayed along with artifacts from the Ku Klux Klan and a cage used to house mental patients.  

Although the museum pieces were clearly meant to show the dark side of Ohio's discredited past, the newest lethal-injection method has been viewed as cutting-edge technology in the business of capital punishment. Ohio has execution dates scheduled right into 2012.
 
It is often hard to see the present with the same clarity that we apply to the past. But it is likely that someday the idea of strapping people onto a table with deadly chemicals flowing through IV-tubes into their arms and watching them die will also be seen as barbaric. 

Particular condemnation might be cast upon the practice of using untried methods on unwilling human subjects--an ethical breach made acceptable only because the recipients are already condemned to die. Those who probe a little further might be shocked to find that the death row inmates were first kept in locked-down cells for 23 hours a day for 15 to 20 years before being led to the execution chambers.