Alabama suffocated a man to death in a gas chamber tonight after starving him so he wouldn't choke on his own vomit as they did it. And this was deemed perfectly legal by multiple courts in the vaunted American legal system.
That's what happens when you value institutions over people.
He wasn't "starved", it says right there in the article that he was given his last meal this morning (Thursday) and allowed no solids after 10am because he suffered from nausea and was worried he'd vomit.
It's okay to be anti-execution but you don't have to make shit up to be inflammatory, there's plenty of other valid reasons to be against execution but making sure a man doesn't choke on his own vomit isn't one of them.
Plus they're trying to say he suffocated like it was torture, no they used nitrogen specifically so it didn't activate the body's panic response to lack of oxygen. He just fell asleep.
Edit: he didn't just fall asleep because he probably held his breath, according to the article, which I didnt read. In my defense I had a news app blocker on (clearly barely working)
And the reason that works is that your body doesn't actually detect low oxygen. When you hold your breath for a long time, the sensation comes from high CO2 levels. That's one reason that working in a hydrogen or helium airship is dangerous, because there can be a leak and you won't even notice until passing out.
Which is so much better than injectables, which ARE torture. They get injected with a tranq first so they don't show signs of struggle or pain when the actual death shot is given.
"Smith’s spiritual adviser, the Rev. Jeff Hood, who’d previously expressed concern that the method could be inhumane, witnessed the execution and described it in more graphic terms, saying it was 'the most horrible thing I’ve ever seen.'
Smith, wearing a tight-fitting mask that covered his entire face, convulsed when the gas was turned on, 'popped up on the gurney' repeatedly, and gasped, heaved and spat, Hood said.
'It was absolutely horrific,' he said."
"Smith, who was on a gurney, appeared conscious for “several minutes into the execution,” and “shook and writhed” for about two minutes after that, media witnesses said in a joint report."
Smith appeared to remain conscious for several minutes after the nitrogen was activated, according to five journalists who were allowed to watch the execution through glass as media witnesses. Although the mask was also secured to the gurney, he then began shaking his head and writhing for about two minutes, and then could be seen breathing deeply for several minutes before his breathing slowed and became imperceptible, the witnesses said.
Bluntly, choking on your own vomit is probably a really terrible way to die. If I recall correctly he was put in a chamber where the majority of the air in the room was replaced with nitrous oxide, asphyxiating the subject. If he had choked on his vomit, it would have been closer to drowning than suffocating in the manner that was intended.
By asphyxiating him in this way, his suffering was effectively eliminated during the execution; but if he had vomited and choked on it.... Well, I don't know if you've ever found yourself short of air in a body of water, but it's a pretty unpleasant experience. It only gets worse as you get closer to death when drowning (from what I've heard/understood from people who have nearly drown).
The intention of not giving him food so he didn't vomit, was a humane decision, not intended for additional suffering and cruelty.
Twisting the intent like this is doing a disservice to the entire process. You can dislike capital punishment all you want, and I may even agree that it shouldn't be done, but the fact is, this statement is misleading at best. I'm all for a healthy discussion on it, but let's not conflate the issue with these misconceptions.
That's my understanding as well. So since I don't see anyone else saying this in detail here goes:
I am not a biologist or a medical professional, but this is my understanding of the process.
The human body does not monitor blood oxygen levels. When you or I hold our breath, the feeling of urgent discomfort we feel is due to a rise in the carbon dioxide (more specifically the carbonic acid) in our blood. Inhaling pure nitrogen will still allow CO2 to exit the bloodstream, so if someone is not made aware of the fact that they are breathing pure nitrogen, they won't even know they are dying.
This person knew they were being executed, which I can only imagine induced a ton of stress and anxiety, yes. However, if you were to tell me that I was being executed tomorrow but I could pick which of the methods currently employed in the US I would be killed by, this would be at the top of the list.
If you want to argue that executing people is morally wrong and we should stop, sure, let's have that discussion. However, we don't need to characterize this method as more inhumane than others to do so.
He took 22 minutes or so to die. Guards in the room said it was awful to watch. His suffering was INCREASED by using this untested method. But then that was surely the point...
The method wasn't untested, it's been done plenty before. The specific tools they used to do it were moronic and they didn't fully understand how to do it properly. Basically they just didn't do their homework.
There's no evidence that it's painless and there is evidence that you stay awake and aware of what's happening to you for several seconds after you are beheaded.
We have no means by which to determine that death by beheading is not painful.
We do, however, have plenty of examples of nitrogen hypoxia, it's effects and the sensations associated with it as you die, by people who were either revived or recovered from situations caused by nitrogen hypoxia.
Personally, I would be okay with death by nitrogen hypoxia, if I either wanted to, needed to, or were forced to die before the end of my life naturally. I presently have no desire to die, nor any need to, nor have I been sentenced to death (or any sentence) for crimes (of which, I have not committed any).
So my opinion is just that, an opinion. I would vastly prefer to continue living at the moment; so I'll just stay out of trouble with the law by doing the same things I always have, and hopefully my health doesn't cause the situation to change.
Death by beheading doesn't sound very nice, but bluntly, it's hard to screw up with something like a guillotine. Since law enforcement (specifically those in charge of executions), seem to be inept, the guillotine may be a better option, since it would be much more difficult for them to do in a way that's so incorrect that it causes more suffering than what is normal for that process. IMO, that's the only significant merit to something like the guillotine. It's so basic they would have to try, in order to do it wrong.
Probably the most painless, foolproof method would be an explosive, just strong enough to turn the entire head into a fine mist, placed right at the base of the neck. The explosion propagates faster than neutron activation can happen, so by the time it would be possible to feel anything, the brain no longer exists.
Think about how a guillotine works. It cuts off your head from your neck.
Think about how your body works. All of “you” exists in the head. You are dependent on everything below the neck to keep the head alive.
The guillotine doesn’t kill you. It separates “you” from the system that keeps “you” alive. It cuts off oxygen and energy from the brain. It is essentially suffocating, but without the muscles to suffocate.
So you are likely fully awake and aware of your surroundings. You are, in effect, holding your breath until you die, but also aware that “you” are in a tiny basket, separate from the things that keep “you” alive.
No thanks.
You know this smug motherfucker?
That’s Antoine Lavoisier, 18th century French chemist. Brilliant man. This is the guy who named oxygen. One of the founding fathers of the fucking metric system.
He was executed by guillotine during the French Revolution for adulterating tobacco. In reality, he had invented a process for curing tobacco in a way that made it more difficult for retailers to cut or modify tobacco, and the retailers really didn’t like that. He was an aristocrat prior to the revolution and, well, you can see how that ended up.
Anyway, he told his buddy to count his blinks right after his head was cut off.
His buddy counted 12.
Lavoisier was exonerated a year and a half after his death.
"La République n'a pas besoin de savants ni de chimistes; le cours de la justice ne peut être suspendu." ("The Republic needs neither scholars nor chemists; the course of justice cannot be delayed.") Judge Coffinhall, who sentenced Lavoisier. He himself was executed three months later
"Il ne leur a fallu qu'un moment pour faire tomber cette tête, et cent années peut-être ne suffiront pas pour en reproduire une semblable." ("It took them only an instant to cut off this head, and one hundred years might not suffice to reproduce its like."). Mathematician Joseph Louis Lagrange on his death.
Sennett was found dead in her home March 18, 1988, with eight stab wounds in the chest and one on each side of her neck. Smith was one of two men convicted in the killing. The other, John Forrest Parker, was executed in 2010.
Prosecutors said they were each paid $1,000 to kill Sennett on behalf of her pastor husband, who was deeply in debt and wanted to collect on insurance.
Yes, a complete barbarian. We have them too, but we aspire to be better than just being equally barbaric in return. That's why civilisations do justice, not revenge.
even for 1988 thats not a huge chunk of money. poverty is the biggest driver of crime. imagine if we reinvested all the money we pour into prisons into actually taking care of people
Yeah, and you know what stuck out to me in the article? That the conservative justices said, he was “gaming the system” for too long with…appeals and requests for stays…and that justice wasn’t done until he was murdered.
Like…he was gaming the system by rotting in prison? So these arbiters of justice think justice is only an eye for an eye and these prisons they adore so much are not brutal enough?
Sounds like the husband killed her with his wallet. He wielded this guy like the guy wielded a knife.
It's absurd to think that killing him would really bring any more peace to the children than destroying the knife.
If anything, having to bear witness to endless appeals and proceedings for 35 years prolongs their torture. I'd really like to see a form of justice that focuses on ensuring the peace and stability of the victims and their family rather than the pain and suffering of the perpetrators.
Man fuck that, someone stabs my mom to death over a measly $1000 and my dad kills himself because he's the one who paid for it and I'm going to want that anger taken out on someone, better be the ones who did all this.
My dude killed someone for $500, literally doesn't deserve to live in society and I don't want to be paying for him to live outside of it.
I'm surprised so many people on lemmy are anti death penalty.
Two chicken fried steaks smothered in gravy with sliced onions, a triple meat bacon cheeseburger with fixings on the side, a cheese omelet with ground beef, tomatoes, onions, bell peppers and jalapeños, a large bowl of fried okra with ketchup, one pound of barbecue with half a loaf of white bread, three fajitas with fixings, a Meat Lovers pizza, three root beers, one pint of Blue Bell vanilla ice cream, and a slab of peanut butter fudge with crushed peanuts.
What're they gonna do if you succeed? Put your corpse in jail? Kill you again? I mean, say what you want about it: suicide is the only crime you can get away with 100% of the time if you succeed.
i think i would rather just do the "usual suspect route" and pull out a shotgun and engage with "advanced strategy"
And then leave a rather humorous note, to hopefully not traumatize whoever the hell is left to clean that up, and probably some money for them as well.
but hey, electronic governers for all cars so they can't go more than 10mph over, pastors stealing millions cuz "jbro said so", just to pull evidence from my lemmy front page today.
humanity will never learn to value individuals over institutions and we will never evolve beyond this due to that.
Pretty much all of the rest of the developed world didn't have to have a coup in order to come to the conclusion that the state killing people is wrong.
The great performative irony of the death penalty is that the swiftest, most merciful death is that by firing squad, but it looks violent and brutal and so increasingly cruel and elaborate alternatives are sought.
Firing squad deaths are prone to human error and could be painful in the final moments leading up to death. Imagine someone accidentally (or on purpose) shoots the subject in the leg or arm instead of the chest. And the subject is awake right up until death.
In contrast, nitrogen asphyxiation is way more humane. It is not reliant on human skill in the way that firing squads are, and the subject loses consciousness before dying.
Murdering someone should not be expedited and made "humane", cause then it just becomes a clinical procedure, and removes all the nasty bits that go with taking a like.
Making it easier for the state to continue doing it. If it was messy and gruesome they would think twice
I think an execution should be messy and brutal. Make the state, the people watching and the executioner really feel it. That way it has more meaning and maybe they'll stop doing it.
Making the death penalty clean, neat and "humane" just encourages the state to do it more. If it wasn't nice and neat, they'd hold back
Didn't Dr Kevorkian come up with a couple humane methods for assisted suicide? I don't think we should have the death penalty, but couldn't one of those be used?