Alabama, unless stopped by the courts, intends to strap Kenneth Eugene Smith to a gurney Thursday and use a gas mask to replace breathable air with nitrogen, depriving him of oxygen, in the nation’s first execution attempt with the method.
The Alabama attorney general’s office told federal appeals court judges last week that nitrogen hypoxia is “the most painless and humane method of execution known to man.” But what exactly Smith, 58, will feel after the warden switches on the gas is unknown, some doctors and critics say.
“What effect the condemned person will feel from the nitrogen gas itself, no one knows,” Dr. Jeffrey Keller, president of the American College of Correctional Physicians, wrote in an email. “This has never been done before. It is an experimental procedure.”
Keller, who was not involved in developing the Alabama protocol, said the plan is to “eliminate all of the oxygen from the air” that Smith is breathing by replacing it with nitrogen.
Ever since watching the Jacob Gellar video about capital punishment, I truly think there is no form of “humane” way of killing someone.
there isn’t. There is no good argument for killing anyone. Even a child can grasp “who watches the watchmen.”
Sometimes violent people need to be secured from society to prevent pain/suffering/death — we have non lethal methods. And they are cheaper, more accurate, slightly less racist-influenced, and more effective than murder.
A large percentage of death row executions are later exonerated. A large percentage of executions are botched causing undue suffering to victim, executioner, staff and witnesses. The death penalty does nothing to dissuade any crimes from happening.
All it does is give people an excuse to talk tough, “Yeah well I’d kill him with my bare hands.”
Sure, Jan.
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