State’s ‘slow and agonizing’ execution of Kenneth Smith using an untested method labeled as cruel by experts and advocates

Smith’s execution by “nitrogen hypoxia” took around 22 minutes, according to media witnesses, who were led into a viewing room at the William C Holman correctional facility in Atmore shortly before 8 pm local time.

  • xor@infosec.pub
    19·
    10 maanden geleden

    Dr. Kevorkian invented an actually humane way of executing people (not that execution is humane, but)
    it has three drugs, one to knock you unconscious, one to stop the heart and one to stop breathing…
    suffocation is not going to be humane…
    even with pure nitrogen, we have the ability to render people unconscious first…
    which is what they’d do if they weren’t trying to torture people.

    • jarfil@beehaw.org
      8·
      10 maanden geleden

      Apparently they tried that on this guy first, but couldn’t find a vein. Guess he did everything possible to make it hard to find one… and they didn’t knock him out first, like with some laughing gas.

      suffocation is not going to be humane… even with pure nitrogen

      With pure nitrogen, unconsciousness comes first. Emphasis on the “pure” part; the moment any CO2 or O2 gets into the mix, shit happens.

      • xor@infosec.pub
        7·
        10 maanden geleden

        they definitely can find a vein… it’s just not always easy…
        as a kid they could never find my veins… even had an IV in my foot once. but when they need to they’ll just keep trying and calling in backup (and eventually a specialist).

        but yes of course, they could just use knock-out gas… and, really, completely replacing a rooms air with pure nitrogen is pretty dumb when you think about it. unless it was just a huge volume of gas that flooded the room. pulling a vaccuum on an entire room would take a while too.
        and obviously he would hold his breath… eventually exhaling co^2
        but yeah, why wouldn’t they just use standard anesthesia gas? or nitrous oxide?
        …
        someone invented a concept-art nitrogen gas suicide booth in switzerland, and some bubba read a tweet about it and now we have this here crime against humanity…

        • Smoke@beehaw.orgEnglish
          5·
          10 maanden geleden

          but yeah, why wouldn’t they just use standard anesthesia gas? or nitrous oxide?

          Because the suppliers don’t want to be associated with executions, so they won’t sell any to the state for that purpose.

        • jarfil@beehaw.org
          3·
          10 maanden geleden

          It highly depends on the skill of the nurse, some have a sixth sense to do it at the first try. I have my veins destroyed thanks to long hospital stays while getting pumped full of antibiotics… but just today went to get some blood drawn, got the good nurse, and he did it on the first try. Actually barely felt it at all.

          As for the Swiss guys, they have other non-art methods that can also use nitrogen… but they’re all targeted at people willing to die, not trying to fight it.

    • Kornblumenratte@feddit.de
      5·
      10 maanden geleden

      The only problem is that that’s just the theory. There are lot of steps that can and will go wrong in practice and turn this method into torture. What is the rate of botched executions by injection? I don’t know, but well above 0 %.

    • FfaerieOxide@kbin.social
      5·
      10 maanden geleden

      we have the ability to render people unconscious first…

      The people who have that ability would rightly lose their license if they used that ability to facilitate an execution.

      • xor@infosec.pub
        1·
        10 maanden geleden

        i don’t think it’s “rightly”
        although execution is barbaric and should be outlawed; if you can’t stop it, making it more humane is still moral.

          • Swallowtail@beehaw.org
            4·
            10 maanden geleden

            I agree with you. Imagine a country starts rounding up and murdering some ethnic/religious minority. Doctors shouldn’t be like “ahh we must help the government kill them in the most humane way possible!” If anything that’s enabling it.