this post was submitted on 26 Jan 2024
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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/14097254

Smith’s execution by “nitrogen hypoxia” took around 22 minutes, according to media witnesses, who were led into a viewing room at the William C Holman correctional facility in Atmore shortly before 8 pm local time.

After the nitrogen gas began flowing, Smith convulsed on the gurney for several minutes. The state had previously said the nitrogen gas would cause Smith to lose consciousness in seconds and die within minutes, according to the Associated Press.

“I’ve been to four previous executions and I’ve never seen a condemned inmate thrash in the way that Kenneth Smith reacted to the nitrogen gas,” Lee Hedgepeth, a journalist who witnessed the execution, told the BBC’s Newsday programme.

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[–] mozz@mbin.grits.dev 22 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (53 children)

Why on earth is nitrogen being treated as worse than the gas chamber, electric chair, or lethal injection? All of those are way more painful, akin to torture. Nitrogen suffocation is literally the method that was selected for suicide pods because it doesn't involve any discomfort (aside from, obviously, the knowledge that you're going to die.)

[–] limonfiesta@lemmy.world 22 points 9 months ago (14 children)

Setting aside the national shame that capital punishment is, regardless of the method used, they strapped his face with a mask. He wasn't in a pod as nitrogen levels rose. He was force fed the gas with a mask that prevented him from "breathing" normally.

[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 9 points 9 months ago (13 children)

And even if he was in a pod where the nitrogen level rose, making his death as physically painless as possible (or so we believe), he still knows he is going to die. That's torture. It should not be legal.

[–] ConfusedPossum@kbin.social 6 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Agreed, the death penalty is inherently cruel, no matter what the person has done. Especially if you make people wait for decades in a prison cell before the sentence is carried out

[–] limonfiesta@lemmy.world 5 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

The decades are a function of the appeals processes; some mandatory, and others initiated by inmates.

I'm not sure fast tracking the process would be an improvement...

[–] ConfusedPossum@kbin.social 1 points 9 months ago

That's just more reason to not do it at all

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