Attorneys for Kenneth Eugene Smith, 58, filed an amended lawsuit challenging the proposed new execution method as a potential violation of the Constitution’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment. They asked a federal judge to issue a preliminary injunction to block the execution from going forward next year.
“There is sparse research on how long a human must be exposed to 100% pure nitrogen to cause death, what happens if a human is exposed to less than 100% pure nitrogen for a prolonged period of time, or on the pain or sensations that a human exposed to nitrogen might experience,” his attorneys wrote in the amended lawsuit filed Monday.
They noted in the filing that the American Veterinary Medical Association wrote in 2020 euthanasia guidelines that nitrogen hypoxia is an acceptable method of euthanasia for pigs but not other mammals because it could create an “anoxic environment that is distressing for some species.”
Arguing his way into a more painful death
Every crack in the death penalty is another step towards abolishing the death penalty.
Agreed, my read of the quotes is that it’s saying something like “you can’t claim ANY execution method is humane because we don’t research how people feel while we are killing them, so just stop.”
For real. There is plenty of research on what death by hypoxia does to the human body. Nitrogen being an inert gas, the sentenced wouldn’t feel anything different than breathing (notwithstanding their own anxiety). Lethal injection- muscle paralysis followed by heart failure - is the much more cruel execution method.
I think if the legal injection went exactly as planned, it would be painless. But that gets botched all the time.
Fun fact, this same inmate was spared last November because they couldn’t find a vein. He’s a prime candidate for lethal injection going wrong. It’s part of the reason they wanted to use nitrogen toxicity.
It goes exactly as planned. It’s agony, and the prescribed under dosage of the anesthesia ensures it.
He’s trying to argue his way out of execution while appeals are being filed.