Posted on 01/25/2024 6:59:11 PM PST by Red Badger
Alabama has put to death Kenneth Smith, the first death row inmate known to die by nitrogen gas, marking the emergence of a wholly new method of execution in the United States, one that some experts had said is veiled in secrecy and could lead to excessive pain or even torture.
Earlier Thursday, the US Supreme Court denied a last-minute appeal by Smith’s attorneys to halt the execution. Liberal Justices Elena Kagan, Ketanji Brown Jackson and Sonia Sotomayor said they would have paused the execution. The Supreme Court also declined to halt the execution a day earlier.
Smith’s time of death was 8:25 p.m. local time Thursday, according to a news release from Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey.
Smith, who was sentenced to death for his role in a 1988 murder for hire, survived the state’s initial attempt to execute him by lethal injection in 2022. On Thursday, he accepted a final meal of steak, hashbrowns and eggs, according to information released by the Alabama Department of Corrections.
Little is known about how the set method of execution, known as nitrogen hypoxia, was carried out because the state’s published protocol bears redactions experts say shield key details from public scrutiny. The state, in court records, indicated the redactions were made to maintain security and it believes death by nitrogen gas to be “perhaps the most humane method of execution ever devised.”
But Smith and his team were skeptical. “The eyes of the world are on this impending moral apocalypse,” the inmate and his spiritual adviser, the Rev. Jeff Hood, said midday Thursday in a joint statement. “Our prayer is that people will not turn their heads. We simply cannot normalize the suffocation of each other.”
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
There’s only ONE expert: Kenneth Eugene Smith..............
Was it cruel and unusual or just plain just?
CNN is upset that he died so easily
CNN is upset that he died...................
Last time they tried to execute him, the guy supposedly spent 3 or 4 hours alive "in excessive pain and torture" while they tried the "humane" stuff. Sounds like this worked much better. But somehow, this is now "veiled in secrecy" (and wth does that even mean?)
I had a chicken sandwich for dinner.
Easy to buy nitrogen gas. It’s not like buying a pharmaceutical cocktail where the company can refuse to sell it to you.
Death by hypoxia occurs accidently from breathing inert gasses often enough that the physical and psychological aspects are well understood. People generally die without realizing what is happening.
There is no excuse for not injecting lethal chemicals properly. Veterinarians euthanize large numbers of animals generally without incident.
Well, apparently Alabama didn’t get the memo. But luckily they were able to take another route.
The problem with lethal injection is foreign governments cutting off the supply of the drugs used. Nitrogen asphyxiation doesn’t require any special equipment that doesn’t have any other use.
They should have used that deadly carbon dioxide that is killing the planet.....
If this form of execution catches on, I see no reason why it can't become a group thing.
Got five people on death row? Put them all in a sealed room and pump the nitrogen into the room. Execute them all for the expense of just one.
Oh, and then make the last meal a buffet.
-PJ
I feel that the most humane method of killing these people would be to have an anesthesiologist put them under to a deep level, and then have a volunteer executioner shoot them in the head. Total cost, anesthetic and one 9mm round. Completely painless guaranteed. Also family members of the killer’s victims should be given the first crack at being the executioner.
Too messy.
Put them to sleep, then give the gas.................
Make another death row inmate clean up the mess.
Just go back to using good old-fashioned rope like the Founders intended.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.