Albama

And the reason that works is that your body doesn't actually detect low oxygen. When you hold your breath for a long time, the sensation comes from high CO2 levels. That's one reason that working in a hydrogen or helium airship is dangerous, because there can be a leak and you won't even notice until passing out.

Also he specifically requested that they used nitrogen over other methods.

He later changed his request to death by firing squad, but I suspect that may have been a delaying tactic rather than an actual preference.

Which is so much better than injectables, which ARE torture. They get injected with a tranq first so they don't show signs of struggle or pain when the actual death shot is given.

Witnesses described writhing:

Smith appeared to remain conscious for several minutes after the nitrogen was activated, according to five journalists who were allowed to watch the execution through glass as media witnesses. Although the mask was also secured to the gurney, he then began shaking his head and writhing for about two minutes, and then could be seen breathing deeply for several minutes before his breathing slowed and became imperceptible, the witnesses said.

He just fell asleep.

eyewitness accounts disagree

"Smith’s spiritual adviser, the Rev. Jeff Hood, who’d previously expressed concern that the method could be inhumane, witnessed the execution and described it in more graphic terms, saying it was 'the most horrible thing I’ve ever seen.'

Smith, wearing a tight-fitting mask that covered his entire face, convulsed when the gas was turned on, 'popped up on the gurney' repeatedly, and gasped, heaved and spat, Hood said.

'It was absolutely horrific,' he said."

"Smith, who was on a gurney, appeared conscious for “several minutes into the execution,” and “shook and writhed” for about two minutes after that, media witnesses said in a joint report."

https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/26/us/alabama-execution-nitrogen-what-we-know/index.html

Also leaving out the fact that the executed and his lawyer both said this method was preferential to lethal injection.

Death penalty in the US and not doing it correctly, name a more fitting duo

It sounds like he tried to hold his breath, not that they did it incorrectly.

It's not like they could have practiced beforehand, but I get what you mean.

Sounds fun but it would be a horrible way to die.

2 grams of heroin would be the way to go I would think

Too dangerous. You might mis-judge the amount and just end up having a good time.

That's my understanding as well. So since I don't see anyone else saying this in detail here goes:

I am not a biologist or a medical professional, but this is my understanding of the process.

The human body does not monitor blood oxygen levels. When you or I hold our breath, the feeling of urgent discomfort we feel is due to a rise in the carbon dioxide (more specifically the carbonic acid) in our blood. Inhaling pure nitrogen will still allow CO2 to exit the bloodstream, so if someone is not made aware of the fact that they are breathing pure nitrogen, they won't even know they are dying.

This person knew they were being executed, which I can only imagine induced a ton of stress and anxiety, yes. However, if you were to tell me that I was being executed tomorrow but I could pick which of the methods currently employed in the US I would be killed by, this would be at the top of the list.

If you want to argue that executing people is morally wrong and we should stop, sure, let's have that discussion. However, we don't need to characterize this method as more inhumane than others to do so.

There's no evidence that it's painless and there is evidence that you stay awake and aware of what's happening to you for several seconds after you are beheaded.

We have no means by which to determine that death by beheading is not painful.

We do, however, have plenty of examples of nitrogen hypoxia, it's effects and the sensations associated with it as you die, by people who were either revived or recovered from situations caused by nitrogen hypoxia.

Personally, I would be okay with death by nitrogen hypoxia, if I either wanted to, needed to, or were forced to die before the end of my life naturally. I presently have no desire to die, nor any need to, nor have I been sentenced to death (or any sentence) for crimes (of which, I have not committed any).

So my opinion is just that, an opinion. I would vastly prefer to continue living at the moment; so I'll just stay out of trouble with the law by doing the same things I always have, and hopefully my health doesn't cause the situation to change.

Death by beheading doesn't sound very nice, but bluntly, it's hard to screw up with something like a guillotine. Since law enforcement (specifically those in charge of executions), seem to be inept, the guillotine may be a better option, since it would be much more difficult for them to do in a way that's so incorrect that it causes more suffering than what is normal for that process. IMO, that's the only significant merit to something like the guillotine. It's so basic they would have to try, in order to do it wrong.

Probably the most painless, foolproof method would be an explosive, just strong enough to turn the entire head into a fine mist, placed right at the base of the neck. The explosion propagates faster than neutron activation can happen, so by the time it would be possible to feel anything, the brain no longer exists.

Think about how a guillotine works. It cuts off your head from your neck.

Think about how your body works. All of “you” exists in the head. You are dependent on everything below the neck to keep the head alive.

The guillotine doesn’t kill you. It separates “you” from the system that keeps “you” alive. It cuts off oxygen and energy from the brain. It is essentially suffocating, but without the muscles to suffocate.

So you are likely fully awake and aware of your surroundings. You are, in effect, holding your breath until you die, but also aware that “you” are in a tiny basket, separate from the things that keep “you” alive.

No thanks.

You know this smug motherfucker?

That’s Antoine Lavoisier, 18th century French chemist. Brilliant man. This is the guy who named oxygen. One of the founding fathers of the fucking metric system.

He was executed by guillotine during the French Revolution for adulterating tobacco. In reality, he had invented a process for curing tobacco in a way that made it more difficult for retailers to cut or modify tobacco, and the retailers really didn’t like that. He was an aristocrat prior to the revolution and, well, you can see how that ended up.

Anyway, he told his buddy to count his blinks right after his head was cut off.

His buddy counted 12.

Lavoisier was exonerated a year and a half after his death.

"La République n'a pas besoin de savants ni de chimistes; le cours de la justice ne peut être suspendu." ("The Republic needs neither scholars nor chemists; the course of justice cannot be delayed.") Judge Coffinhall, who sentenced Lavoisier. He himself was executed three months later

"Il ne leur a fallu qu'un moment pour faire tomber cette tête, et cent années peut-être ne suffiront pas pour en reproduire une semblable." ("It took them only an instant to cut off this head, and one hundred years might not suffice to reproduce its like."). Mathematician Joseph Louis Lagrange on his death.

High explosives, easily the least painful way to die if it's very close to you.

guillotines are probably the worst pain possible. you ever hear of phantom limb pain? try your entire body

Humane methods involve putting people to sleep, not violent destruction (which includes deliberate suffocation, for any retards about)

firing squad is i think the most commonly agreed upon method, beyond what we do for (legally consented) lethal injections and MAD.

lethal injection was a mistake, electrocution was a mistake. The british canon execution is ironically, probably the best option.

The method wasn't untested, it's been done plenty before. The specific tools they used to do it were moronic and they didn't fully understand how to do it properly. Basically they just didn't do their homework.

Is that true? Where did you hear this?

I’m good with revenge.

Yeah, and you know what stuck out to me in the article? That the conservative justices said, he was “gaming the system” for too long with…appeals and requests for stays…and that justice wasn’t done until he was murdered.

Like…he was gaming the system by rotting in prison? So these arbiters of justice think justice is only an eye for an eye and these prisons they adore so much are not brutal enough?

Man fuck that, someone stabs my mom to death over a measly $1000 and my dad kills himself because he's the one who paid for it and I'm going to want that anger taken out on someone, better be the ones who did all this.

My dude killed someone for $500, literally doesn't deserve to live in society and I don't want to be paying for him to live outside of it.

I'm surprised so many people on lemmy are anti death penalty.

Prisoner requests:

Two chicken fried steaks smothered in gravy with sliced onions, a triple meat bacon cheeseburger with fixings on the side, a cheese omelet with ground beef, tomatoes, onions, bell peppers and jalapeños, a large bowl of fried okra with ketchup, one pound of barbecue with half a loaf of white bread, three fajitas with fixings, a Meat Lovers pizza, three root beers, one pint of Blue Bell vanilla ice cream, and a slab of peanut butter fudge with crushed peanuts.

State provides.

Actually I’m not hungry.

State never grants last meal requests again.

Sure, but you could have the meal two nights before.

guess i really shouldnt be surprised by this. Though i am still surprised it was ever illegal at all frankly.

Good to know we're moving in the right direction though i guess.

Based on how this man died, "dignity" isn't the word I would use.

i think the fail state here is fucking it up. And being alive still.

You can be involuntarily committed for that shit.

Ain't nobody got time for being on death row for 20 years

Suicide in some places makes you a criminal. There's a tasteless joke here somewhere, but I'm too tired to find it.

i think i would rather just do the "usual suspect route" and pull out a shotgun and engage with "advanced strategy"

And then leave a rather humorous note, to hopefully not traumatize whoever the hell is left to clean that up, and probably some money for them as well.

The rest of the developed world isn't politically stuck in the early 20th century.

Murdering someone should not be expedited and made "humane", cause then it just becomes a clinical procedure, and removes all the nasty bits that go with taking a like.

Making it easier for the state to continue doing it. If it was messy and gruesome they would think twice

It should be humane for the victim not for the executioners or state or the people who want to watch it.