Alabama, unless stopped by the courts, intends to strap Kenneth Eugene Smith to a gurney Thursday and use a gas mask to replace breathable air with nitrogen, depriving him of oxygen, in the nation’s first execution attempt with the method.

The Alabama attorney general’s office told federal appeals court judges last week that nitrogen hypoxia is “the most painless and humane method of execution known to man.” But what exactly Smith, 58, will feel after the warden switches on the gas is unknown, some doctors and critics say.

“What effect the condemned person will feel from the nitrogen gas itself, no one knows,” Dr. Jeffrey Keller, president of the American College of Correctional Physicians, wrote in an email. “This has never been done before. It is an experimental procedure.”

Keller, who was not involved in developing the Alabama protocol, said the plan is to “eliminate all of the oxygen from the air” that Smith is breathing by replacing it with nitrogen.

  • Pennomi@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    Your video shows exactly how painless it is, and in fact how it can cause euphoria instead. Besides, this execution method is fundamentally different because it removes oxygen completely while maintaining normal pressure, causing unconsciousness to happen much faster with fewer physiological responses.

    Obviously execution is heinous at its very core, but your criticisms don’t seem to line up with the scientific facts.

    • Ross_audio@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      Only when he knows he’s not meant to die.

      If he was told he was going to die he’d be crying at the moment he realised he was dying. Which as you can see from the first time he said “I don’t want to die” would be several minutes.

      “Scientific facts” are studies. We’re just people on the internet giving opinions.