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.”
Nitrogen asphyxiation has been a favoured method with the euthanasia crowd for a while now. I’m against the death penalty, but it would be one of my top three preferred ways out if I was given the choice.
Nitrogen asphyxiation has been a favoured method with the euthanasia crowd for a while now. I’m against the death penalty, but it would be one of my top three preferred ways out if I was given the choice.
What are your other two?
Being exploded, your nerves can’t act fast enough to notice. A high explosive attached to your head would be painless.
Ya, I want to be “vanquished” like I was whipped by Simon, it seems quick and painless.
Suicide helmet. We all know the one I’m talking about.
That sounds simpler than my idea of firing squad with thousands of rifles could by a computer
wouldn’t a good old firing squad do the same?
Fun fact! Inmates have stayed alive and conscious for over 10 seconds after being shot by the firing squad, it’s an extremely painful, violent, and bloody execution method! A lot of the pain can come from shattered bones and spinal column damage which gets to your brain before shock and/or death can set in
Not unless they all point to your head.
Probably massive dose of heroin, or high explosive. But we all know #1 is snu snu.
Death by snu snu
Nitrogen is a good pick, though personally if I could pick anything it would be a double barrel point blank to the face. Partially because it’s instantaneous, but mostly just to traumatize the executioner as I look him in the eye. I may not be evil, but I never said I was a good person.
I don’t believe it’s ever been a serious proposal, but I’d be ok with the rollercoaster of death
Or maybe an orgy of death
NTA but my top three would be
hypoxia via inert gas
firing squad
hanging
The humiliation of spending my last few minutes on Earth strapped to a chair while my body is chemically forced to fall asleep and my muscles and heart stop is too dehumanizing and is a punishment in itself to me.
firing squad
hanging
We get it, you wanna suffer. Are you including acid in the eyes for your inert gas exposure?
TIL quick, painless, and assured death are suffering.
Pray tell, what methods do you think are more painless?
Mine would have explosives strapped to my head. You would not exist long before any pain could be registered.
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.
Smith’s initial conviction and death sentence was overturned on appeal. He was retried and convicted again in 1996, but the jury this time recommended a life sentence by a vote of 11-1. A judge overrode the recommendation and sentenced Smith to death. In 2017, Alabama became the last state to abolish the practice of letting judges override a jury’s sentencing recommendation in death penalty cases, but the change was not retroactive.
The laws changed to where he should be serving a life sentence, but they don’t apply to him because they changed after the bloodthirsty judge decided to kill him.
Regardless of my jokes, I think when we eat the rich in self-defense, we should avoid being sadistic about it and use the least distressing methods.
Let’s eat them compassionately
Bring back firing squads.
