First execution using nitrogen

[Jenry]

Alabama has executed a man using nitrogen flowing through a mask for the first time. Warning - distressing detail in the article.
how is this allowed to happen in this day and age? It’s inhumane.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-68085513.amp

There are varying contemporary reports, some say he held his breath for 2/3 mins and summised the thrashing was due to that, then when he actually breathed it in it took five minutes to die, some tabloids have said it took 30 minutes of agony. I don't agree with the death penalty myself but it's something that the USA does and I find the reporting is very different.

I don’t understand why they can’t use similar drugs to GA that put you to sleep and then use whatever. There are plenty of drugs that would cause death if overdosed such as insulin or morphine… and no shortages of them.

I can’t bring myself to feel sorry for murderers though…

They had already tried to do that to this man, but failed to get good venous access so had to give up. Another major problem with this method is that drug companies do not want to sell the required drugs for this purpose, so supply has been a major issue.

They had already tried to kill him with the lethal injection. They couldn't get an IV in, and the court had actually stayed the execution because there was evidence they would not be ale to get a needle in to him.

Warning, not an easy read.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/dec/28/lethal-injection-surviving-execution-attempt-alabama

Without being too gruesome and callous, I don't understand how it's so "easy" to put an animal to sleep, so why can't we just use the equivalent here? Or is that literally what the lethal injection is? I didn't know if the animal one was intravenous or just an injection.

I’m not sure why they couldn’t just hang him. Putting aside any moral debate about the death penalty, what’s wrong with the traditional method? Why do they have to faff around with devising new and frankly quite awful sounding methods because they can’t use lethal injection? Hanging is actually very quick if done correctly as it breaks the neck rather than strangling.

A bullet to the head would be quicker, cheaper and more humane.

I just hope it's not used on people wrongly convicted, that's my issue.

Many of the medical drug companies that manufacture the General Anaesthetic drugs quite rightly refuse to sell it to an end use of killing people. They only sell to hospitals that are trying to save lives etc because that's an appropriate ethical policy for a drug manufacturer.

The majority of people on death row are at least 2 out of poor, ethnic minority, and with learning difficulties. People who aren't any of these things are generally able to secure a non-death sentence if found guilty. This isn't justice. The justice system in the USA is totally broken.

I wondered that too.

I had my dog PTS recently. It was swift and calm.

is it because they want the criminal to suffer?

it's fucking barbaric anyway.

No drug company in the world will supply it to a prison for execution. \the same for the GA.

There is a Jewish organisation that have campaigned against thes. They campaign against the death penalty in all forms, but understandably, death by gas is particularly problematic.

The death penalty is disgusting enough. This whole story makes me feel sick.

Maybe the thrashing was him remembering beating his victim with a fire extinguisher - I bet she was thrashing too! Sorry, find it impossible to feel sorry for a murderer.

It's absolutely inhumane and abhorrent. Suffocation essentially. Equivalent to drowning. Two wrongs don't make a right. But then maybe I'd feel differently if a loved one had been brutally murdered.

I am absolutely and implacably opposed to the death penalty in any circumstances. But for those who have said why not lethal injection /GA/morphine etc, please read the story, they tried that and could not get venous access, not even by central line, it seems.

So many odd people on here. You don't have to feel sorry for a murderer to think this is disgusting.

Does it not blow your mind that someone has been gassed to death in the USA? It's horrific

Not feeling sorry for a murderer isn't odd. Someone not agreeing with you isn't odd.

It's also possible to not agree with the death penalty and also not be disgusted by this blokes death. And that's a valid feeling/reaction.

I am against the death penalty

And that a country as rich and creative as the US cannot find a means just puts the tin lid on it. Gassing people is wrong.

If they must do it, then I don't understand why they don't just OD them (using seized heroin, as drug companies don't want any part of this). I'm sure a government lab could do any necessary testing to ensure sufficient quality and ascertain dose for humane end.

Leaving aside the issue of the death penalty itself and focusing entirely on methods

Why nitrogen instead of helium.
Helium doesn't make the body react in any way. Unlike other forms of suffocation, the body doesn't realise it's not getting oxygen. It is a physically pain free method.

I in no way condone this convicted man's awful crime, but I find the concept of basically suffocating someone to death unacceptable, and the people who administer it utterly macabre. Do they go home for their tea with a clear conscience?

The death penalty should be ancient history. For me, the worry that the processes of justice are imperfect and an innocent person could be put to death clinches it.

@RoseAndRose that was explained in the article

I imagine it was extremely traumatic for those in attendance- doctors, nurses, family etc..
I'm no expert but seems an awful method to kill someone by. I don't understand why they didn't perservere and get the IV in- they would if he was having surgery. He had veins, they would have got one in eventually, even if using an ultrasound machine was required. Or a picc line, like what's used for long term iv treatment- chemotherapy etc.

Yes that's what I said ..no one is saying you should feel sorry for a murderer necessarily.

But if you don't agree with me that gassing people, whoever they are and whatever they've done, is really disgusting, then yes I think you're incredibly strange.

I can’t bring myself to feel sorry for murderers though…

Until you suddenly discover that the person was innocent….
And then what? Was dying like still feeling ok?

Oh please, anyone thinking this is "inhumane" want to go into a slaughterhouse and watch how pigs are killed!

Same way and you hear the poor things screaming and thrashing!