Kenneth Smith ‘struggled for life’ for 22 minutes in nitrogen gas execution: Updates
www.independent.co.uk
Witness Reverend Jeff Hood told reporters he saw a man ‘struggling for their life’ for 22 minutes as Smith became the first US death row inmate executed by nitrogen asphyxia

“Kenny just began to gasp for air repeatedly and the execution took about 25 minutes total.”

Pretty compassionate way to kill a person.

Once again, the Law in the south is brutal.

  • 𝕽𝖚𝖆𝖎𝖉𝖍𝖗𝖎𝖌𝖍@midwest.social
    43·
    11 months ago

    And that’s why, when you remove that critical 21% of oxygen, your body doesn’t realize it’s suffocating. You breath normally but pass out really quickly since your brain has nothing to burn.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inert_gas_asphyxiation?wprov=sfla1

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarco_pod?wprov=sfla1

    Some reporter from Salon, or Wire - some big site like that - participated in a controlled nitrogen hypoxia experiment on himself, and wrote about it. It was really interesting, but search engines are flooded with that Alabama execution, and I lost interest in searching for it.

    • bss03@infosec.pubEnglish
      8·
      11 months ago

      If you can find it https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1228865 is a good watch. It covers other methods, but it becomes clear how fast, effective, and painless nitrogen asphyxiation can be, as the presenter has to receive assistance in order not to die while attempting to get close to the experience (without dying).

      It’s also a bit sad, as it makes it clear that for at least some capital punishment advocates, suffering is a desired part of the outcome.

      I’d like to avoid death, but I can foresee a potential future when my quality of life is negative and no amount of volunteer effort can bring it positive. If that happens, I’d like to opt-in to mortality via inert gas (probably nitrogen) asphyxiation.

      If we must have capital punishment, inert gas asphyxiation seems to be the best known way to do it. I’m not convinced we must have capital punishment, tho.

      • 𝕽𝖚𝖆𝖎𝖉𝖍𝖗𝖎𝖌𝖍@midwest.social
        5·
        11 months ago

        Nice! I hadn’t seen that.

        People are going to need to die in controlled ways; whether in believing some people should be murdered by the State, or in believing people should be allowed to end their own lives, there are few Americans who don’t fall somewhere outside of the set of people who think there is never a case for controlled human death. Most of those people are probably Amish, or some branch thereof.

        Alabama clearly fucked this one up - I guess that’s what happens when you drive all of the STEM folks out of your state. There was no reason - other than wanting a person to suffer, as you said - for it to have gone so wrong. Justified or not, if I were to ever find myself in that chair, asphixiation by nitrous nitrogen is absolutely the way I’d want to go. And that’s the most basic measure of humanity we need: do unto others.

        Edit: typo