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.

We don't know what it was like - it could have been quick and painless - I am not in favour of the death penalty personally, but don't see why people think this method of execution is worse than any other. It might have been, but we don't know if he lost consciousness immediately, or not. I guess it will be discerned at some point by somebody, but we certainly have no way of knowing here and now.

I have put down animals. They often move A LOT after death. I don't think we can say that because he was moving he was alive, or even if he was alive, that he was conscious.

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

Who is pretending? I'm certainly not.

I think it is barbaric full stop to have the death penalty, so gas poisoning does not seem especially shocking to me beyond that, no.

Once the state is killing somebody - once that boundary has been crossed - whatever method is not going to be surprising really.

It is (or was, at one point) a common method of suicide for people to turn on a gas oven, or to run tubing from a car exhaust. As I said, if I could choose my death, I'd choose gas over being stabbed and beaten with a poker.

So no, this doesn't seem especially shocking. What do you expect if the state has the death penalty?

Well I agree with you in regards to the death penalty...I'm totally against it. A state gassing someone to death is horribly reminiscent of the Nazis though

That is carbon monoxide though, not nitrogen. Don't think it would feel the same

He deserved it. You wouldn't be saying that if a someone you loved got murdered brutally

His veins have all basically collapsed and they couldn’t get a line in. This is why the lethal injection failed. I guess they could have given him huge amounts of midazolam rectally as a sedative but I’m not clear on the laws regarding other medications being used in prison.

Plus it is in America, his comfort was never going to be high on their list.

@Haunting10

You say that they used the same as the Nazis used… Surely they didn’t use Zyklon B in the execution?

I'd rather be put out of my misery than spend the rest of my life in prison, especially an American prison.

I totally agree

And no of course you can’t try to intervene or campaign against the justice system of another country. He committed his crime knowing what the punishment would be, he made a choice to go ahead with it. His victim made no such informed choice to die. It seems to blow some people’s minds on here that actions have consequences, sometimes severe consequences.

I believe it was the first time they had tried this means of execution, and so it was an experiment. That pretty much fits the bill of cruel and unusual punishment.

I’m sure no tears will be shed for him - not by me either - but I’m against the death penalty in principle.

They had already tried and failed once. After that, any right-minded person would think 'let's just commute it to life imprisonment now.' But no.

I despair.

Gas v
being "ambushed, violently punched, beaten, and bludgeoned, and stabbed over and over again with the six-inch survival knife that Smith and Parker had brought with them"[9] Smith's hands were later “puffed up” or “wrapped and bruised,” indicating he was responsible for most of the violence against Sennett.

I’ll take the gas- or maybe not murder people violently.

YANBU - It’s an incredible waste of human organs, it could be carried out more peacefully and he could have done a good deed in the process.

This is one of those things where logically I know I SHOULD find it abhorrent ….but in truth, I just don’t. I can’t generate any particular anger about this at all, I read the story this morning and then forgot about it.

And I don’t deny that the arguments against it in the media (and on here from people like the OP) have been articulate and cogent. But…. 🤷‍♀️. That is how I feel.

I guess that Alabamans will make their views clear in the voting booths if they deplore this method. It’s up to them. I’d be against it if I were forced to pick a side I suppose, but I wouldn’t be campaigning or anything. And certainly not for Mr Smith, because frankly I’m sick of violence against women by male perps and I don’t greatly care what becomes of them tbh. Perhaps that’s why I’m not so furious…dunno.

Interesting thread.

He did not know that he would be held on death row for 35 years, be the victim of a badly botched and traumatic attempt at execution, and would ultimately be gassed.

So why should the state descend to his standards?

Albert Pierrepoint was landlord of a pub in Oldham.

Apparently there was a sign up saying ‘no hanging around the bar.’

I’ll get my coat.

If we are saying that killing people is wrong, how can we as a society condone cold-blooded judicial killing?

They’re not. His standards were to kill a woman in cold blood. Theirs is to execute him as a punishment. By that logic somebody guilty of false imprisonment shouldn’t be locked up?

It's sad and there are no winners.
Not sure if i agree with the death penalty.

The absolute worst thing about this case is that the husband ordered the hit, knew he was going to get caught, killed himself, and was bloody buried with the victim! That's sickening.

I'm also against the death penalty and this execution was particularly awful.

I’m not for the death penalty but when it’s said how terrified he’d feel my mind went to how terrified any victim is of a killing due to a violent perpetrator

This is how I feel too.

I actually found it more upsetting to read that his victim is buried in a joint grave with the husband who arranged and paid for her murder (and then took his own life when he realised the police were onto him).

Absolutely this. It's almost like his evil actions had a consequence. Go figure.

No, this is a total fallacy. People who have lost loved ones to murder can still oppose the death penalty - many of them do, and vocally. It's a point of principle that state killing as a method of revenge or punishment is always wrong.