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.
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It appeared Smith held his breath for as long as he could, and struggled against his restraints
Hypoxia with an inert gas (and CO2 evacuation), is a peaceful way of dying when you don’t fight it: it starts with euphoria, followed by loss of consciousness, followed by brain damage and finally death after several minutes more.
If you struggle and try not to die for as long as possible… well, it’s not going to be pretty. That’s why the hypoxia euthanasia solutions always have an emergency out, in case the person changes their mind.
If like you say they cheaped out on the mask, that’s going to be even less pretty.
Another possibility is the nitrogen source: nitrogen used for welding, comes mixed with some CO2 precisely so people don’t go and kill themselves with it (accidentally or not). If they also cheaped out on the nitrogen and used one of those, that’s torture.
It seems a smidge absurd to me that some people apparently expect that death row convicts won’t fight it, I must admit. Of course he fought it. He was terrified.
A method doomed to be painful because the convict inevitably fights it is still painful, and it can’t be deemed “okay” by blaming the convict for it as if he had any choice in the matter when fight-or-flight kicked in. It’s yet another failure in a long string of similar execution failures.
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It’s fucked up that I read a comment the other day making the argument that this would not be painless if he were able to fight it. And that comment got downvoted to shit. And here we are.
At this point, I think the only possible solution, aside from the obvious and cheaper life without parole, is to move to a pneumatically operated guillotine. We know that any post-separation convulsions are entirely disconnected from the brain. Sure, it’s a little messy, but retribution and vengeance have their drawbacks. Just clean up the mess or stop executing people.
On a realistic note, I would not be surprised that holding his breath led to his “torture” with CO2 building up in his blood as he intentionally writhed and resulting in actual discomfort as the body reacted to the CO2 even as the lack of oxygen in the breathing mix caused him to lose consciousness. It’s his final act to make a posthumous case (real or sensational) against his executioners. I find it hard to imagine that trace CO2, in even welding N2, would be sufficient to cause a reaction unless they intentionally got a gas mix (I don’t weld with N2, but 75Ar/25CO2 is very common for MIG).
It’s so weird how many people are so against Nitrogen asphyxiation when it should be one of the easiest, cheapest, and safest methods.
How’d they manage to screw it up?? Unless they botched it on purpose to prove a point?
Dr. Kevorkian invented an actually humane way of executing people (not that execution is humane, but)
it has three drugs, one to knock you unconscious, one to stop the heart and one to stop breathing…
suffocation is not going to be humane…
even with pure nitrogen, we have the ability to render people unconscious first…
which is what they’d do if they weren’t trying to torture people.Apparently they tried that on this guy first, but couldn’t find a vein. Guess he did everything possible to make it hard to find one… and they didn’t knock him out first, like with some laughing gas.
suffocation is not going to be humane… even with pure nitrogen
With pure nitrogen, unconsciousness comes first. Emphasis on the “pure” part; the moment any CO2 or O2 gets into the mix, shit happens.
they definitely can find a vein… it’s just not always easy…
as a kid they could never find my veins… even had an IV in my foot once. but when they need to they’ll just keep trying and calling in backup (and eventually a specialist).but yes of course, they could just use knock-out gas… and, really, completely replacing a rooms air with pure nitrogen is pretty dumb when you think about it. unless it was just a huge volume of gas that flooded the room. pulling a vaccuum on an entire room would take a while too.
and obviously he would hold his breath… eventually exhaling co^2
but yeah, why wouldn’t they just use standard anesthesia gas? or nitrous oxide?
…
someone invented a concept-art nitrogen gas suicide booth in switzerland, and some bubba read a tweet about it and now we have this here crime against humanity…but yeah, why wouldn’t they just use standard anesthesia gas? or nitrous oxide?
Because the suppliers don’t want to be associated with executions, so they won’t sell any to the state for that purpose.
It highly depends on the skill of the nurse, some have a sixth sense to do it at the first try. I have my veins destroyed thanks to long hospital stays while getting pumped full of antibiotics… but just today went to get some blood drawn, got the good nurse, and he did it on the first try. Actually barely felt it at all.
As for the Swiss guys, they have other non-art methods that can also use nitrogen… but they’re all targeted at people willing to die, not trying to fight it.
The only problem is that that’s just the theory. There are lot of steps that can and will go wrong in practice and turn this method into torture. What is the rate of botched executions by injection? I don’t know, but well above 0 %.
How’d they manage to screw it up??
Ways that come to mind:
- Guy held his breath for as long as possible, while fighting the restraints
- Leaky mask that let in ambient air with oxygen, prolonging the agony
- Cheap welding nitrogen laced with CO2, increasing the sensation of suffocation
Just like with suicide, there are plenty of tiny ways to botch an execution.
The article also mentions seizures, but that part is to be expected with any form of extensive brain damage leading to death… it can only be masked with some muscle relaxants, not avoided.
The article also mentions seizures, but that part is to be expected with any form of extensive brain damage leading to death…
Is this precisely because it wasn’t pure nitrogen?
Nah, as the brain dies, it gets “damaged”, and that can lead to seizures or whatever. It doesn’t really matter why it’s dying; as long as it stays more or less together, there will be “abnormal activity” until it runs out of energy and the neurons finally depolarize. During “natural death”, the whole body is usually too weak, or too sedated, to show any sign of that, but in otherwise able-bodied individuals… death ain’t pretty.
Then the question is whether the seizures would wake one from a nitrogen knockout. ie would one be aware of the seizures?
Based on my limited experience with seizures, the oncoming of one can wake one up, but after that they seem to knock one out… so if one was already knocked out in advance, I don’t think they would wake them up?
Did they screw it up? Hypoxia causes convulsions, that’s a well known fact, so I don’t get all the fuss about witnessing normal body functions in a dying body. Especially as people convulsing are unconscious.
The real torture here – and with all death sentences – is the years and decades long psychological torture while on death row. And rspecially in this case of course the first, botched execution attemped. Ramming needles for four hours into someone!
Absolutely horrific. This man committed a terrible crime and murdered an innocent woman, but the world gains nothing from the state murdering him.
Hey slightly off topic but what did the guy do to deserve this and was the case fully closed without any loophole ( i geniunly want to know ) thanks in advance.
Partway through the article:
Smith was convicted in the 1988 murder of Elizabeth Sennett. Sennett’s husband, a pastor, allegedly paid Smith and another man $1,000 each to kill her.
A jury voted 11-1 to sentence Smith to life in prison, but the judge overseeing the case overrode that decision and sentenced him to death. That practice, called judicial override, has since been eliminated in all 50 US states.
Some of Sennett’s relatives attended the execution and told reporters they had forgiven Smith.
“Nothing that happened here today is going to bring Mom back,” sais Mike Sennett, Elizabeth Sennett’s son. “It’s a bittersweet day, we’re not going to be jumping around, hooping and hollering, hooraying and all that, that’s not us. We’re glad this day is over.”
Hmm why didn’t the husband get a similar charge too ?
Did you look up what charges he got or are you just assuming? (Probably rightfully, but still)
Just looked it up…they did charge him, but he pulled an Epstein.
No just asking if someone knows
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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.
He used sign language to say “I love you” to witnesses in the viewing room, and in his final statement he said: “Tonight, Alabama caused humanity to take a step backward.”
Volker Turk, the UN high commissioner for Human Rights, said on Friday: “I deeply regret the execution of Kenneth Eugene Smith in Alabama despite serious concerns this novel and untested method of suffocation by nitrogen gas may amount to torture, or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.”
“According to leading experts, this method is a particularly cruel and unusual punishment, in addition to the fact that the inmate was already subjected to a failed execution attempt in November 2022,” it said in a statement.
Bryan Stevenson, a well-known lawyer who has fought against the death penalty and founded the non-profit Equal Justice Initiative, also condemned Smith’s execution.
Kay Ivey, Alabama’s Republican governor, said the execution was “lawfully carried out by nitrogen hypoxia, the method previously requested by Mr Smith as an alternative to lethal injection”.
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