Absolutely appalled by Kenneth Eugene Smith's execution

[Haunting10]

Appalled is too soft a word. I feel physically sick and angry.

What a sick world we live in.

I am against the death penalty. One person wrongly convicted and sentenced to death is too many. This particular case sounds like torture, and to use what the Nazis used on millions, its just disturbing on so many levels.

I keep thinking about it. But what can we do? I'm in UK, and expect any activism will be happening in US.

What will happen to the state of Alabama? Surely something must be done. This was not human.

I am against the death penalty too. It has no place in a civilised society.

Frankly though if I had to choose my own death, I'd choose dying from gas poisoning over the incredibly violent death he inflicted on the woman he murdered via stabbing and beating with a poker.

I guess I'm wondering why his death in particular has moved you so much? Aren't there much worse cases where it seems like the person is actually innocent?

Cases where the person on death row is innocent, I mean.

My thoughts are only with his victim . He knew what the consequences could be .

@OnTheAlert it's the method of execution. I don't agree with the death penalty but the state has quick and painless ways to kill people. This sounded utterly horrific and has no place in a "civilised" society.

He brutally murdered a young mother of 2 sons who he didn't know in a really violent way for $1000. He left those 2 boys parentless.

My thoughts are with the poor woman he murdered. I'm sure her death wasn't swift and painless either. No sympathy

I find it sickening as well, OP. It is barbaric, utterly horrifying. I honestly struggle to get my head around how anyone can think that it's acceptable for the state to do this.

What this man did to that poor, innocent woman was horrific, but two wrongs don't make a right. The state should not stoop so low as the criminals that it seeks to punish. That's revenge, not justice.

Oh I haven't read anything about the method other than it was gas.

I mean, is a lethal injection any better? Is it really more gentle?

I agree with @hattie43 although Jesus wept there's so many quicker, more humane if you like, methods. Hanging, firing squad, guillotine. Maybe even Dignitas?

I’m torn. The death penalty seems barbaric but if someone has brutally killed someone it is hard to feel the death penalty is wrong. I do still find it hard to comprehend killing someone legally though

This

Didnt they do tge gas because lethal injection failed previously?

Yes, they tried and failed to him previously. Which makes it even worse as far as I'm concerned.

I read a few years ago that the drugs typically used for lethal injection have stopped being sold for use in lethal injection (so if they had a medical purpose a hospital could buy them but a prison can’t, and a hospital couldn’t buy them on behalf of a prison would be diversion, which is against the law) because the drug companies were being targeted by anti death penalty protesters. So this is what they have came up with as an alternative.

I haven’t followed this particular story closely but I kind of expected he would just fall asleep, I didn’t consider the practicalities of how it would happen. From what I heard on the news this morning it sounds like he seized, or had some sort of physical reaction. I’m not saying he didn’t deserve his punishment, although I would describe myself as anti death penalty, but something just seems so barbaric about it.

Hanging, firing squad, guillotine

Hanging can take a long time. Firing squad is quick, sure, but it is violent.

I think it is harder than a lot of people realise to engineer a peaceful death and it is never guaranteed.

I don't agree at all with the poster who commented that the state has "quick and painless" ways to kill people.

I don't know why they don't use a guillotine. Totally instant and guaranteed painless.

If I were to get a choice of method it's what I'd go for 100%.

I don't have any sympathy for any murderer

I have never supported the death penalty but I now think I would. I have qualms about innocent people, mistakenly convicted, but where there is no doubt, as in this case, I think for murder or severe cases of sexual abuse, or acts of terrorism, I would support it. I can see no sense in keeping these people alive or allowing them to live in prison with any degree of comfort for the rest of their lives.
I would include in that people like the bloke who killed those people In Nottingham and who was on the news yesterday and the one who pushed the little French boy off the viewing gallery balcony of the Tate. I am uninterested in their mental illness - they knowingly and deliberately murdered someone, knew it was wrong, have expressed no remorse and I see no sense in them being locked up for life.
I think shooting is the cleanest, quickest option.

The death penalty has no place in a civilised society, which is why only a small minority of countries still use it. That and the fact it is clearly no deterrent.

But the way this particular execution was carried out was unforgivably brutal and frankly makes the people who did it just as bad as murderer.

You can think the crime he committed was abhorrent and also find his punishment abhorrent. They're not mutually exclusive.

And please don't pretend you don't understand why this particular method of execution feels especially shocking...

This 100%. Also the cost of keeping these violent murderers, terrorists etc alive is astronomical - just what is the point? That money could be used so much better.

Albert Pierrepoint was the master at hanging and could go into the cell of the inmate, bind and hood them, and together with his assistant dispatch the condemned in 10 seconds. Each drop was adjusted for the inmate's height and weight. Get that wrong, and yes, you could end up with a slow death by strangulation, or a messy decapitation.

Why cant they just give a quick overdose of GA through a canula?

This is how I feel.

I am uninterested in their mental illness

Luckily the justice system isn't so lacking in critical thinking

I am completely opposed to the death penalty. That doesn’t mean I don’t sympathise with the victims or their families. It’s possible to do both.

Today’s Newsagents podcast is worth a listen on why the various methods don’t work.

It seems a bizarre decision to use a method that has been condemned as tantamount to torture by the UN because no sedative was being given. Why would they give no sedative? It does feel very much like revenge. I also don’t understand why a bullet to the head wouldn’t be a more humane method