If Kenneth Eugene Smith is brought to the Alabama death chamber to face execution next week for his role in the 1988 murder-for-hire of a pastor’s wife, the state plans to use an untested and untried method to end his life, suffocating him with a stream of nitrogen gas to be delivered through a face mask.
In a federal appeals court Friday, Smith’s lawyers sought to block it, arguing that not only have Smith’s constitutional rights been violated, but that he could be subjected to an agonizing death and that most of the details surrounding the state’s new execution protocol “deserve more scrutiny.”
The use of nitrogen gas will be a capital punishment first, even though it has not only been denounced by some medical professionals but also by veterinarians who oppose its use on animals. In 2020, the American Veterinary Medical Association advised against the use of nitrogen gas as a way to euthanize most mammals, calling it “distressing.” One of the few uses of nitrogen gas in animal euthanasia is with chickens.
The United Nations’ Office of The High Commissioner for Human Rights has expressed alarm, saying in a statement that the untested method “could amount to torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment under international human rights law.”
The funny thing is short of overdosing on ketamine and morphine, I always thought nitrogen gas would be my preferred choice to go as it sidesteps the hypercapnia that leads to the urge to need to breathe.
That being said, they could always build a pressure chamber to simulate even a fraction of the pressure differential the titan submersible went through and that is proven to be painless and faster than the point the brain can process.
Or, you know, just not use the death penalty.
I think the most humane method would probably be the combo you highlighted. So like morphine and ketamine and then nitrous to ensure that once the individual enters shallow breathing the nitrous would complete the objective. I can’t imagine there is a more relaxing and stress free way to die than that.
Of course, the revenge driven justice system is not looking for the most humane way to kill someone. The cruelty is the point.
This is so dumb I can’t get my head around it. Put a man in a chamber, flood it with N2, painless, easy death. Hell, he even gets to go out high as a kite!
Are we all so ignorant that this isn’t obvious?! FFS, I remember a tragedy where two teens died fucking in a giant helium balloon. They didn’t know they were dying.
CO2 overload is what triggers the choking/suffering response. Our bodies have no way to detect a lack of O2. We’ll happily breathe any non-noxious gas, as long as it’s not CO2. Hypoxia don’t sound like a bad way to go. .45ACP to the skull comes a close second, but I’d like to fade out stoned, given the chance.
Signed: Old guy with mild emphysema from smoking 20-years. I don’t get short of oxygen, I get short trying to pump the CO2 out.
Unfortunately, for many proponents of the death penalty suffering is the goal.
Nitrogen doesn’t make you high… you’re probably thinking of N2O, nitrous oxide.
Lack of oxygen will get you high. Look up hypoxia.
I wouldn’t really call that high
There’s a pretty fail-safe way to avoid this happening.
Don’t have the death penalty? Agreed.
Simply chop his head with a guillotine. Almost zero percent chance of fucking up, quick and painless. No, that one story about the slapped head is bunkum. Standing up suddenly can cause you to faint due to low blood pressure. Having your neck cut off results in a much more sudden drop in blood pressure to the brain. People just don’t want to see the messy blood spilled. If you want to execute someone, deal with it.
deleted by creator
How about not having government sanctioned murder on the table at all.
LOL no. We Americans want retribution and death without messy stuff like blood. Ya know, like Hollywood?
For my tastes? Shoot me in the head. But I’d take N2 gas over that.
