751
Kenneth Smith ‘struggled for life’ for 22 minutes in Alabama nitrogen gas execution: Updates
(www.independent.co.uk)
this post was submitted on 26 Jan 2024
751 points (93.5% liked)
News
23377 readers
2868 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. We have an actively updated blocklist, which you can see here: https://lemmy.world/post/2246130 if you feel like any website is missing, contact the mods. 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 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Where's all the people that said we "do actually know what it does to people and it's painless" now?
I'll admit it. I'm one of them.
The report is in direct conflict with what I've seen and heard in the past about this method. It's impossible to find right now on Google, but there was a documentary where someone subjects themselves to this method and it was the complete opposite of what's being reported now.
I'm against the death penalty, btw, but if it has to be done, I believed this method was the most humane. I have to ask if it was 100% nitrogen or did they do what the justice system always does and run it through hundreds of iterations to actually make it worse, like 50% air, 50% nitrogen or something like that.
We are here, learn to read. They did it wrong, just like they usually botch every single form of execution because cruelty is the point. Thus, stop all execution and remove the dead penalty.
The difference between a model and reality is often in the implementation. Clearly, this person had access to oxygen for 22 minutes after the execution started, which is a problem if you goal is to suffocate someone quickly. He was also suffering, which is possibly an indication that CO2 levels were too high, which would be another problem. It could also just be due to stress, which is unavoidable in an execution. Seizures near the time of death are also likely.
Ultimately, inert gas asphyxiation, if done correctly, is still probably the most humane means of execution, except for a large caliber bullet to the brain, which is very messy.
These issues are all secondary to the question of whether capital punishment should ever be used. I've stated my beliefs on that before. In short, it should never be done but if you're going to do it, it should be as humane as possible.
Captive bolt would be just as lethal as a bullet, and less messy. They're designed not to make a mess ever since BSE, you don't want to get brains everywhere. Yes that sounds grisly but I run a ranch, it's something we have to talk about.
They could use a custom designed unit, but if the ones we use can drop a full grown bull, I suspect they would be adequate.
A small and fast bullet like .22 Magnum is also extremely effective and leaves no mark except a tiny clean hole, at least on livestock. But they have different skulls from humans. I'm sure those ballistic gel guys could come up with the optimum bullet and load.
I don't know all the details, but more than a few people have survived head shots with small caliber rounds. Captive bolt would certainly be as effective and pretty painless, which really should be the goal if you're considering capital punishment.
Definitely small calibers have terminal performance issues. They lose energy fast at long range, barrel length and weight are critical, quality control is just plain not as good on cheap rimfire ammo. We had a guy in to butcher a batch of lambs for us awhile ago and his .22 misfired over 5 times...
That's why .22 is banned for hunting in most places because while it can easily be deadly, it's not reliably so.
When we do it ourselves I use .22 Magnum even on small animals like lambs because it's MUCH more deadly, it's never failed me.
There are plenty of humane ways to kill when drugs/sedatives are involved.
In my opinion, the real issue is people won't be satisfied with someone feeling high or relaxed or whatever before dying (if their death was supposed to be a punishment). But those same people also don't want suffering...? It's very confusing to me.
Yeah, it's a tough call to determine if this is due to incompetence or malice. A lot of people seem to relish the suffering.