473
submitted 2 years ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/news@lemmy.world

Alabama is seeking to become the first state to execute a prisoner by making him breathe pure nitrogen.

The Alabama attorney general’s office on Friday asked the state Supreme Court to set an execution date for death row inmate Kenneth Eugene Smith, 58. The court filing indicated Alabama plans to put him to death by nitrogen hypoxia, an execution method that is authorized in three states but has never been used.

Nitrogen hypoxia is caused by forcing the inmate to breathe only nitrogen, depriving them of oxygen and causing them to die. Nitrogen makes up 78% of the air inhaled by humans and is harmless when inhaled with oxygen. While proponents of the new method have theorized it would be painless, opponents have likened it to human experimentation.

top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[-] flossdaily@lemmy.world 227 points 2 years ago

That's a pretty good way to go, apparently.

But there have been an absolutely breathtaking number of death row cases that have been overturned due to new evidence that had exonerated the condemned.

It seems pretty clear that the state is doing a very crappy job of determining guilt, and therefore shouldn't be handing down such a permanent sentence.

[-] HonoraryMancunian@lemmy.world 53 points 2 years ago

breathtaking

Heh

[-] madcaesar@lemmy.world 43 points 2 years ago

I used to fully pro death penalty, especially for some of the sick fucks...

But then I learned about all the false convictions, some COERCED by the fucking police, and since then I'm 100% against the death penalty.

The satisfaction I get from a heinous killer getting killed, does not outweigh the horror I feel for even one innocent life being taken by the state.

[-] insomniac@sh.itjust.works 22 points 2 years ago

It’s also cheaper to keep people in jail forever than put them to death because of all the appeals. And despite being more careful, we still get it wrong.

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (2 replies)
load more comments (22 replies)
[-] LEDZeppelin@lemmy.world 141 points 2 years ago
[-] Vaggumon@lemm.ee 38 points 2 years ago

Yeah, that's a lie, always has been.

[-] CaptObvious@literature.cafe 25 points 2 years ago

They wouldn’t know “pro-life” if it bit them on the ass. They’re simply pro-birth. Literally everything else about the GOP platform is anti-life.

[-] Vaggumon@lemm.ee 15 points 2 years ago

Pro birth so they can supply meat to the industrial grinder and dead solders for the war machine.

[-] Leviathan@lemmy.world 93 points 2 years ago

Small government folks sure are horny about giving their government the power to murder them.

load more comments (5 replies)
[-] alvvayson@lemmy.world 86 points 2 years ago

If ever I would need to be killed, this would be my preferred method of leaving the earth.

Happy to see them try it, even though I am against executing people.

With hypoxia, you get euphoria prior to death. No suffering, no pain, just a little high to send you off this earth.

load more comments (8 replies)
[-] c0mput0r@kbin.social 66 points 2 years ago

This is how I would want to go. Look up BBC Horizon 2008 How to Kill a Human Being. Explains everything you need to know. Seems like states don't want to do it because people wouldn't suffer during execution. Maybe things have changed since then.

[-] Brickhead92@lemmy.world 17 points 2 years ago

Is it really an execution if there is no suffering? /s

load more comments (10 replies)
[-] JackbyDev@programming.dev 55 points 2 years ago

Folks who are confused by this, your body doesn't detect when you're low on oxygen, only when you have too much carbon dioxide. That's why exhaling while holding your breath helps you hold your breath longer (to an extent). Nitrogen doesn't caused the sensation of suffocating while still depriving you of oxygen.

I disagree with capital punishment but have always wondered about this for stuff like assisted suicide.

load more comments (3 replies)
[-] bdonvr@thelemmy.club 43 points 2 years ago

I'm definitely against the death penalty but if they're gonna do it anyway this seems like one of the better options

load more comments (16 replies)
[-] GiddyGap@lemm.ee 43 points 2 years ago

Let him rot in prison.

ABOLISH CAPITAL PUNISHMENT

load more comments (12 replies)
[-] Mowcherie@lemmy.world 41 points 2 years ago

I get that it is 'humane,' but I get scared when I see humans developing and organizing highly efficient ways to exterminate humans, such as gas chambers.

load more comments (26 replies)
[-] Sterile_Technique@lemmy.world 38 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Surgical tech here... why not just use Propofol? It's the shit we use to put people to sleep for surgery.

It kicks in FAST - when the anesthesiologist pushes that stuff, it can literally take like 5-10 seconds for the patients to go unconscious.

So... for the death penalty, hit em with the normal dosage to put them to sleep, then once they're confirmed unconscious, push the rest of the bottle... or a liter of gasoline... or chuck em out the window; it doesn't matter, as they'll be 100% unaware of the actual method of death.

Edit - turns out there's a lot of good reasons we don't just use Propofol - see comments below. Thanks for the insight, all!

[-] livus@kbin.social 62 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

The real answer is that the makers of Propofol specifically don't want you to use it to kill people.

Furthermore, if the US does use Propofol to execute anyone it will likely find itself suffering a shortage of Propofol to use as an anaesthetic in future.

@vithigar

[-] FuglyDuck@lemmy.world 21 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Because the people selling it don’t want to deal with the association with lethal injections

[-] lgmjon64@lemmy.world 21 points 2 years ago

They used to use thiopental, which is similar to propofol, with similar onset, both as an anesthesic and for lethal injection. Manufacturers stopped producing it because its use was controversial. Now it's not even available for anesthesia. It would suck if the same thing happened to propofol.

[-] JdW@lemmy.world 16 points 2 years ago

anesthesiologist

There you have it, qualified medical professionals refuse (and are not allowed to anyway because of the oath) to participate in executions. So the people administring whatever concoction is made are not medically trained nor usually even particularily knowledgable on the subject. And yes, this has caused a series of botched executions, to the extent that the most bloodthirsty states are looking at smimpler ways to execute. Hence this aricle.

load more comments (9 replies)
[-] Pat12@lemmy.world 35 points 2 years ago

"Smith was one of two men paid $1,000 each to murder Elizabeth Sennett on behalf of her preacher husband, Charles Sennett Sr., who was in debt and wanted to collect life insurance money."

Hold on, so why is he being executed? He wasn't the one who ordered the murder. It seems like lots of other people request murders but those people aren't sentenced to death.

[-] roboticide@lemmy.world 15 points 2 years ago

Because he accepted money in exchange to brutally beat and stabbed a person to death. "Just following orders," has never been an acceptable excuse for an individual to commit a crime, but especially when it's not an order in a military hierarchy, it's payment and a voluntary agreement. Fuck him.

Sennet Sr. committed suicide the moment the police started to investigate him. That's why he's not about to be executed.

load more comments (2 replies)
load more comments (4 replies)
[-] reverendsteveii@lemm.ee 34 points 2 years ago

Watching the murder states scramble for new ways to murder as they run out of unethical people willing to sell them murder supplies has been interesting.

[-] ApathyTree@lemmy.dbzer0.com 33 points 2 years ago

Ok, but bear with me here, because for real, this is how I want to go, and how I plan to put down my fowl when they get too old to live comfortably, because there’s no stress involved to taint the meat, and I can feel comfortable with myself for giving them a good life with free roam, and a good end.

It’s incredibly humane. You feel nothing and don’t know you are suffocating. If you’ve ever breathed helium, you know what nitrogen feels like - literally nothing. This happened to multiple individuals in space because nitrogen is not flammable, and is why they now use 6% co2 in non-oxygenated spaces.

The body does not care if it has oxygen, that’s hard to test for biologically because oxygen is highly reactive, what it does test for is buildup of co2. As long as you can breathe out the co2, your body knows nothing.

So if they are going to kill other humans, this is the way to go. I don’t agree with doing that non-voluntarily, but if it’s going to happen this is at least humane.

load more comments (5 replies)
[-] Silverseren@kbin.social 29 points 2 years ago

Always the conservatives trying to innovate on how to kill people.

[-] mojofrododojo@lemmy.world 16 points 2 years ago

because the medical companies they got their lethal injections from decided they'd rather not be associated with governmental killing.

then the foreign countries they bought from decided the same. so now they have to get creative.

Personally, I'd like to see a 500t press option: literally just drop a 500t weight on me from a 30' height. By the time my brains register any sensation they'll be strawberry jelly squishing out the sides of the press plate.

load more comments (5 replies)

Alabama:

we’re innovating! :D

Everyone else:

bro what the fuck

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] Rinna@lemm.ee 19 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

I am by no means pro death penalty, but I prefer this over the lethal injection. It's a very painful and horrifying way to go and not at all like the drugs they give someone for medical euthanasia, while suffocating on nitrogen is actually relatively painless.

load more comments (2 replies)
[-] ThatWeirdGuy1001@sh.itjust.works 14 points 2 years ago

Serious question. Why don't we just shoot them? I'm pretty sure bullets are cheaper than any chemical we use and it's instantly effective. You can't really mess it up either especially if you built a contraption the make sure the bullet hits the base of the skull.

Or fuck even one of those things they use for cattle. I just don't understand why we seem to choose expensive options when the cheapest solution is right there.

[-] bemenaker@lemmy.world 58 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Nitrogen is pretty cheap, and would be considered way more human. Bullets aren't an instant death, the cattle thing would be but considered brutal. Both a firing squad and cattle thing would be considered cruel and unusual punishment, the SCOTUS has already said firing squads are cruel and unusual. The classic three drug cocktail was painless but no one will.make it.

Nitrogen makes you feel.like.your drunk, nitrogen narcosis, until you pass out. It is considered painless.

But the real question you should be asking is, why do we even still allow the death penalty. Innocent people have been put to death. Or at least enough doubt that they shouldn't have been killed.

[-] Vaggumon@lemm.ee 20 points 2 years ago

But revenge is more important then justice. /s

load more comments (15 replies)
load more comments (11 replies)
load more comments (5 replies)
[-] squaresinger@feddit.de 14 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Can someone enlighten me why it's so hard to find an execution method?

I mean, tens of thousands of teens manage to execute themselves with the content of an average bathroom. How can it be that hard to find a fitting method?

Especially if there are things like carbon monoxide poisoning which has been used by hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people to accidentally kill themselves without them even noticeing.

And if you want a method that's guaranteed to be painless, put someone's head into a large fires cutter and drop a 10 ton weight onto it from 50 meters height. In an instance, there's noting left that could feel weight.

Or ask Ocean Gate for advice. From what Youtube told me, submersible implosings happen within a few milliseconds and have so much speed and pressure that they effectively vaporize the people inside. Pretty sure that's rather painless.

[-] irotsoma@lemmy.world 17 points 2 years ago

First, no licensed medical personnel can participate since it violates the Hippocratic oath, so you have to design the protocol without any input from anyone who understands the human body well enough or any scientific studies because human experimentation designed to end a life is illegal. And then also carry it out without people who know how to find a vein, much less understanding what to do when things go wrong.

And if it requires drugs or complex equipment whose sole use is executions, very few companies are going to want that contract. It's not lucrative with no other uses, and you tarnish your reputation and possibly lose more lucrative contracts in less conservative states.

There are very few methods that are effective and painless for everyone and not messy since you want people to watch, including the victims' friends and families. That way you can justify the act, pretend that you're using it as a crime deterrent, and fewer people are likely to feel sorry for the person and stop future executions. And it has to be cheap because one of the justifications is that life in prison is so costly.

Honestly, the best bet for painlessness, ease of execution, and simplicity of the equipment and maintenance is the guilotine. But it's messy and most people don't want to see a headless body fall to the ground. And it's hard to find workers to clean up after.

load more comments (4 replies)
load more comments (12 replies)
load more comments
view more: next ›
this post was submitted on 26 Aug 2023
473 points (100.0% liked)

News

28442 readers
3629 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil


Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.


2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.


Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.


3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.


Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.


4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.


Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.


5. Only recent news is allowed.


Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.


6. All posts must be news articles.


No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.


7. No duplicate posts.


If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.


8. Misinformation is prohibited.


Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.


9. No link shorteners.


The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.


10. Don't copy entire article in your post body


For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS