A federal judge who is weighing whether to allow the nation’s first execution by nitrogen hypoxia to go forward next month, urged Alabama on Thursday to change procedures so the inmate can pray and say his final words before the gas mask is placed on his face.
U.S. District Judge R. Austin Huffaker made the suggestion in a court order setting a Dec. 29 deadline to submit information before he rules on the inmate’s request to block the execution. The judge made similar comments the day prior at the conclusion of a court hearing.
Alabama is scheduled to execute Kenneth Eugene Smith on Jan. 25 in what would be the nation’s first execution using nitrogen gas. Nitrogen hypoxia is authorized as an execution method in Alabama, Mississippi and Oklahoma but has never been used to put an inmate to death.
The proposed execution method would use a gas mask, placed over Smith’s nose and mouth, to replace breathable air with nitrogen, causing Smith to die from lack of oxygen.
And what if they didn’t do it? What if you brutally torture someone to death and later a key witness reveals that they lied? Or evidence proving their innocence isn’t discovered until decades later. It happens all the time.
It’s not a “what if.”
One in 8 sentenced to death is later exonerated.
Most executions take years or even decades to even happen and scenarios like you suggested are extremely rare.
It’s more like 16% sentenced to death are innocent. The point of the seemingly endless appeals is that the process is so fucked already more than 15% of the initial sentences are changed during appeal because someone somewhere fucked up… And you want to add more people to this process?
Stop swallowing the GOP lies. That sort of conservative bullshit belongs on Fox. Leave it there.