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‘Astonishingly cruel’: Alabama seeks to test execution method on death row ‘guinea pig’ (www.theguardian.com)

submitted 1 year ago by jeffw@lemmy.world to c/politics@lemmy.world

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Nine months after Kenneth Smith’s botched lethal injection, state attorney general has asked for approval to kill him with nitrogen

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[-] SoylentBlake@lemm.ee 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

The protocol, the first that a state has released publicly for nitrogen, indicates that the gas will be pumped into Smith through a “mask assembly”, which will be connected to “breathing gas tubing”. “The mask will be placed and adjusted on the condemned inmate’s face”, it says, and then after the prisoner has been allowed to make a final statement “the Warden will activate the nitrogen hypoxia system”.

The gas will be passed through the mask into the prisoner for 15 minutes, or for five minutes beyond the moment that he flatlines, whichever is longer, the protocol says.

The details given are so vague, Denno said, that it leaves experts to “only speculate about how a state might conduct a nitrogen hypoxia execution”. She added that the placement of a mask on a prisoner’s face “is especially puzzling – what if the inmate tries to take it off, immediately or during the procedure?”

What a load of shit The Guardian has become. Just to be clear, did we all read the same thing? What details are left out? It seems pretty clear to me what they intend to do, does the how need to be written out in G-code or could your average person make that streeeeenuous mental leap themselves?

[-] laylawashere44 6 points 1 year ago

The guardian is such a shit rag nowadays. It's like theyve just embraced the wing of the Labour Party that was convinced Corbyn was a communist antisemite. There is zero spine amongst the editors of the Guardian. They also are a supposed left-wing paper that regularly publishes opinions by supposed 'gender critics.'

At this point you can really only rely on the Financial Times as a vaguely left newspaper that doesn't entertain the culture war nonsense politics.

[-] Staccato@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

The most cruel parts of executions tend to be when the method fails. It's a fair question.

I don't believe the death penalty should exist. But I also think an airtight chamber would be a much better way to induce hypoxia than a cheap-ass mask. Given the state where this is happening, I don't have a lot of confidence they'll even know how to ensure the mask gives an airtight seal.

[-] CurlyMoustache@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

A mask sounds like an awful idea. If the mask does not give an airtight seal, they might survive. If they survive they will most likely get brain damage from the lack of oxygen. Then you have to do it again, and to a person that is now severely handicapped and very mentally challenged.

A helmet or a tank seems to me a better idea, but then you would need strong people to get the helmet on or the person into the tube.

[-] CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago

Why do we even still have the death penalty?

[-] mayo@lemmy.today 2 points 1 year ago

Of all the gases why Nitrogen? Argon is more commonly used for kill bags, I think.

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this post was submitted on 02 Sep 2023

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