https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-68089279
US inmate faces first nitrogen execution after losing last-minute appeals
An Alabama death row inmate is expected to become the first person in the US to be executed with nitrogen gas, after losing last-minute appeals.
The US Supreme Court and a lower appeals court declined to block what Kenneth Eugene Smith's lawyers called a "cruel and unusual" punishment.
Opponents say using nitrogen could cause unnecessary suffering, and a leak could harm people present in the room.
Smith, 58, was convicted in 1989 of murdering Elizabeth Sennett.
He told the BBC earlier this week that the wait felt like torture.
Smith would be the first person to be put to death by this method in the US and, according to the Death Penalty Information Center, anywhere in the world.
Breathing pure nitrogen without oxygen causes the cells to break down and leads to death. Alabama said in a court filing that they expect him to lose consciousness within seconds and die in a matter of minutes.
But its use has been denounced by some medical professionals, who warn it could cause a range of catastrophic mishaps, ranging from violent convulsions to survival in a vegetative state.
Alabama and two other US states have approved the use of nitrogen hypoxia as an alternative method of execution because the drugs used in lethal injections have become more difficult to find, contributing to a fall in the number of executions nationally.
Alabama already tried to execute Smith by lethal injection two years ago but were unable to raise a vein before the state's death warrant expired.
Smith was one of two men convicted of murdering 45-year-old Sennett in a $1,000 (£790) killing-for-hire in March 1988.
She was beaten with a fireplace implement and stabbed in the chest and neck, and her death was staged to look like a home invasion and burglary.
Her husband Charles Sennett, a debt-ridden preacher, had orchestrated the scheme to collect insurance money. He killed himself as investigators closed in.
Smith's fellow hitman, John Forrest Parker, was executed in 2010.
At his trial Smith admitted to being present when the victim was killed, but said he did not take part in the attack.
The UN's High Commissioner for Human Rights has said gassing Smith could amount to torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, and called for a halt.
321d
@vivify saidHow come the mafia [and people all over the world in fact], know how to carry out an execution quickly and painlessly and you jokers in the USA cannot do it after so many decades ?
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-68089279
US inmate faces first nitrogen execution after losing last-minute appeals
An Alabama death row inmate is expected to become the first person in the US to be executed with nitrogen gas, after losing last-minute appeals.
The US Supreme Court and a lower appeals court declined to block what Kenneth Eugene Sm ...[text shortened]... investigators closed in.
Smith's fellow hitman, John Forrest Parker, was executed in 2010.
321d
@earl-of-trumps saidThat is the issue here, death by inert gas is peaceful and the only convulsions are from those that are aware of what is happening i.e. psychologically rather than physical. It's not the nitrogen that kills it's the lack of oxygen and physically there's no sensation of drowning, or gasping or fighting for breath, only an incredible desire to close your eyes and sleep. (unless you're aware psychologically that someone is killing you and the last close of your eyes is the last thing you'll see and experience as a human.) Anyone that's had a whiff of straight CO2 can attest to the discomfort and shock of that sensation but Argon or Nitrogen are colourless and odorless.
"cruel and unusual" punishment.
Question: How do you kill someone *without* it being "cruel and unusual" punishment.
The horror stories in the OP are not the reasons to be opposed to death by inert gas, but it is 'cruel and unusual' punishment/torture to tell them they will cease to exist in one week, one day, one hour, one minute. The torment the human mind must go through in those moments I can only assume most are given a dose of some downer, morphine or something to prevent them screaming in anguish and thrashing around.
Argue against the death penalty on the basis of that, not some make up stories about a nitrogen leak.
321d
The death penalty is disguting.
And in this case more so. I have no idea about nitrogen and what it does, but the judge over-ruled the jury to give him a death penalty (that sounds strange to me) and then they botched the first attempt.
That alone makes this case bizarre.
Personally, if you’re going to have a death penalty, I say bring back the guillotine and have the closest family member of the victim pull the lever and have the state senator on his knees looking into the criminals eyes as the blade comes down.
And everybody watching it has to smear the blood on their faces.
Hell, go full hog… everyone has to be naked at the event and sip the blood as well.
320d
@shavixmir saidWell, to be fair, it IS Alabama.
The death penalty is disguting.
And in this case more so. I have no idea about nitrogen and what it does, but the judge over-ruled the jury to give him a death penalty (that sounds strange to me) and then they botched the first attempt.
That alone makes this case bizarre.
Personally, if you’re going to have a death penalty, I say bring back the guillotine and have the ...[text shortened]... their faces.
Hell, go full hog… everyone has to be naked at the event and sip the blood as well.
320d
@earl-of-trumps saidCruel and unusual punishment is what practiced by the Western judicial system. Over 30 years incarcerated waiting on a judgment, followed by a painful execution. This is a clear case of people who think they are so civilized, advanced and humane doing absolute garbage, and unable to see it.
"cruel and unusual" punishment.
Question: How do you kill someone *without* it being "cruel and unusual" punishment.
I remember seeing a case in some Mid-east country where a man was caught in the act raping a young girl. He was brought to the judge, who established the credibility of the eye-witnesses and the perp was executed with a bullet to the head the very same day.
That is what justice is all about. Western justice, where the rapists, murderers and other perverts live in relative comfort off taxpayers is a failure.
320d
The man was executed:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-68085513
Alabama has executed convicted murderer Kenneth Eugene Smith with nitrogen gas, the first time the method of capital punishment has been used globally.
A witness told the BBC that Smith thrashed violently on the gurney and the execution took around 25 minutes.
In his final words, the 58-year-old said his death would mean Alabama had taken humanity "a step backwards".
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320d
@earl-of-trumps saidDeath by laughing gas?
"cruel and unusual" punishment.
Question: How do you kill someone *without* it being "cruel and unusual" punishment.
320d
@averagejoe1 saidWhat you’re talking about is revenge for the loss of a loved one, do it yourself and then do your time.
@Suzianne
If a cretin killed my child, I would want the state to execute the cretin. It would be irrelevant to me, and I assume to all of you, how they do it.
Does everyone agree with my statement? Or do you not?
We’d all like to do horrible stuff to someone who killed our child that’s only natural, I’m sure the court would go easy on you
Giving the state permission to kill its own citizens is a very stupid thing to do in my opinion. Life meaning physical life for child murder would be my preference. The parents get a physical life sentence, why not the perpetrators
320d
@mott-the-hoople saidAlso against stupid people everywhere, including this forum.
so you are bigoted against Alabama?
People like you are so f'ing stupid, maybe you shouldn't be allowed to speak. Just carry pictures around with you and hold them up and grunt.
320d
@averagejoe1 saidI do not agree, no.
@Suzianne
If a cretin killed my child, I would want the state to execute the cretin. It would be irrelevant to me, and I assume to all of you, how they do it.
Does everyone agree with my statement? Or do you not?
Yes, I would want the fukker dead.
Yes, if I knew who it was and had the chance I would do it myself.
No. You cannot give these sorts of powers to the state. Also, 100% sure that someone is guilty is rare.
As in this case, the man may not have participated in the killing itself, they were hired and the jury want life, not death.
You can’t turn back a death sentence, and the government should not have the ability to make such far reaching mistakes.