Alabama wants to be the 1st state to execute a prisoner by making him breathe only nitrogen

https://lemmy.world/post/3845133

Alabama wants to be the 1st state to execute a prisoner by making him breathe only nitrogen - Lemmy.world

Alabama is seeking to become the first state to execute a prisoner by making him breathe pure nitrogen. The Alabama attorney general’s office on Friday asked the state Supreme Court to set an execution date for death row inmate Kenneth Eugene Smith, 58. The court filing indicated Alabama plans to put him to death by nitrogen hypoxia, an execution method that is authorized in three states but has never been used. Nitrogen hypoxia is caused by forcing the inmate to breathe only nitrogen, depriving them of oxygen and causing them to die. Nitrogen makes up 78% of the air inhaled by humans and is harmless when inhaled with oxygen. While proponents of the new method have theorized it would be painless, opponents have likened it to human experimentation.

Serious question. Why don’t we just shoot them? I’m pretty sure bullets are cheaper than any chemical we use and it’s instantly effective. You can’t really mess it up either especially if you built a contraption the make sure the bullet hits the base of the skull.

Or fuck even one of those things they use for cattle. I just don’t understand why we seem to choose expensive options when the cheapest solution is right there.

Nitrogen is pretty cheap, and would be considered way more human. Bullets aren’t an instant death, the cattle thing would be but considered brutal. The classic three drug cocktail was painless but no one will.make it.

Nitrogen makes you feel.like.your drunk, nitrogen narcosis, until you pass out. It is considered painless.

But the real question you should be asking is, why do we even still allow the death penalty. Innocent people have been put to death. Or at least enough doubt that they shouldn’t have been killed.

But revenge is more important then justice. /s

People always think of the innocent person who got off. I get that. But what do you do with somebody who has, say, shot lots of kids in a school?

Rehab? In what world could we let that person back into society?

Never said let them back into society. Knowing you will die in a 6x6 cell, alone, and unwanted by anyone in the whole world is far worse punishment then anything else I can imagine. But killing anyone, regardless of crime, or evidence, makes you just as much of a murderer as anyone convicted of that crime. Also, there is the possibility of killing someone completely innocent, what then? Oops our bad, but we killed 30 other bad people, so this one isn’t a big deal?
Many people would prefer to be executed vs. being tortured for 50 years in a cell. Others wouldn't, though. Is it worse to imprison someone innocent for decades or mistakenly execute them? I'm not sure. People could take their choice, perhaps? That's pretty cruel too though.

Knowing you will die in a 6x6 cell, alone, and unwanted by anyone in the whole world is far worse

So… Revenge then?