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Kenneth Smith ‘struggled for life’ for 22 minutes in Alabama nitrogen gas execution: Updates
(www.independent.co.uk)
this post was submitted on 26 Jan 2024
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From another report:
Well, that would certainly make things worse for the prisoner and the witnesses.
If that's the case, then he wasn't going to be unconscious in seconds, as it would be expected by breathing the gas.
Instead, he inadvertently caused himself a lot of unnecessary suffering.
That's okay next time we'll just run a tube down his throat! That's not cruel at all!
Or maybe we put them in a room and fill it with the nitrogen gas. Some kind of... Chamber.
It's not really about the nitrogen. Earth's atmosphere is 78% nitrogen already. It's the absence of oxygen that's fatal. Our bodies don't sense a lack of oxygen, just a surplus of CO2. The idea is to remove all the oxygen and the CO2. It's a slow suffocating process but, in theory, the subject would only experience falling asleep. Of course that assumes it's done properly and the subject isn't panicking, neither of which seem likely.
We do it for pigs! Except we use CO2, because it's cheap and apparently we don't give a fuck about pigs.
I'm a rancher and meat lover and still the fact that the slaughterhouse industry chooses to gas animals with CO2 disgusts me. On my farm we dispatch with a rifle shot to the brain, the animal is dead immediately.
Honestly that's the choice I would take if I had to be executed. Though nitrogen gas is fine too, I used to do confined space work and have seen many examples about how you don't even know that you're dead.
No no, too cruel. That would risk them hurting themselves when they fall over. We must strap them tightly in place upside down for security purposes, and then put a tube down (up?) their throat. And if we accidently put it down their food hole ~~then that's just a bonus~~ then it was probably their fault for struggling.
For the record, fuck the death penalty.
I think a mask, which I assume they used, is far better in this context. Just like being at the dentist.
But in medically assisted suicide, an injection is used (sometimes drugs that a patient can take themselves), and it is by far the most respectful, humane way to do it.
If a prisoner is going to hold their breath and make it worse than it needs to be, you can't fault the method.
That said, the situation was still horrible from what's been described.
If a natural human response messes up your execution, you should absolutely blame the method.
Do you try to hold your breath when you get gas at the dentist? It would be aweful.
You can't control how some people are going to act.
Some faint when they see a needle, some vomiting when they are electrocuted. Some soil themselves before a hanging or firing squad.
I'm not saying I support execution or the method, but it's obvious that this could have gone much smoother had the prisoner not try to intentionally hold their breath.
It quite literally should have been very relaxing, quick, and as respectful as you can expect for an execution.
Right, they were trying to not die. That is what everybody will do in this scenario. That's the kind of thing that happens when you murder somebody, the victim is generally opposed to your plan, and so they typically do not do as you wish. An execution that plans to have the victim of it go along with the plan is simply idiotic.
If execution is the punishment, there really won't be a perfect way to do it, not without the prisoner's cooperation.
Really, this would have been a much better way to go than electrocution, which is traumatizing for everyone involved.
Keep in mind, this guy survived lethal injection, so maybe he was simply trying to cheat death a second time.
If the person we're killing struggles then it's not our fault? Really? Did my sarcasm make you think I actually supported this bullshit?
I'm saying that in this specific case, if he was holding his breath, then it caused considerably more suffering than it needed to.
I'm offering an explanation as to why witnesses saw him struggle so much, not saying that one way is better than another... to execute someone is going to be horrible no matter how it happens.
It didn't have to be at all though. We don't have to keep doing this.
I don't disagree.