A federal judge who is weighing whether to allow the nation’s first execution by nitrogen hypoxia to go forward next month, urged Alabama on Thursday to change procedures so the inmate can pray and say his final words before the gas mask is placed on his face.
U.S. District Judge R. Austin Huffaker made the suggestion in a court order setting a Dec. 29 deadline to submit information before he rules on the inmate’s request to block the execution. The judge made similar comments the day prior at the conclusion of a court hearing.
Alabama is scheduled to execute Kenneth Eugene Smith on Jan. 25 in what would be the nation’s first execution using nitrogen gas. Nitrogen hypoxia is authorized as an execution method in Alabama, Mississippi and Oklahoma but has never been used to put an inmate to death.
The proposed execution method would use a gas mask, placed over Smith’s nose and mouth, to replace breathable air with nitrogen, causing Smith to die from lack of oxygen.
I think public executions where the prisoner is tortured to death are more progressive than supposed “humane” methods.
Not because I like cruelty or think they deserve it, but I want the State to do it’s killing out in the open where citizens are exposed to what’s happening in their name. Hiding the act behind closed doors and beneath a cloak of “humane” methods allows the State to exercise ultimate authority in secret from the people from whom that authority is derived. It’s the State and the supporters of the death penalty that are being spared pain.
Yes, I got this from Foucault.
What Foucalt gets wrong here is that historically, civilians just enjoy it. They don’t find it barbaric or inhumane.
Like there wouldn’t be some national conversation about “what have we become” - it’ll just be a fun thing people do.
So easy to build a sealed room. Why use a mask in the first place? Slowly exchange air for nitrogen and the prisoner dies saying his pointless prayer. Never even knows it happened. No suffering, no nothing. Just lights out. Then re exchange for air so the body can be safely collected. This is not rocket surgery.
no suffering
Person fucking dies that’s like the ultimate suffering i can think of, holy fuck killing people can’t be made humane no matter how many different methods are used
I don’t think you know what the word suffering means.
Physical or mental pain someone experiences dying will definitely be mentally painful if you know its gonna happen and once someone stops responding and the brainwaves go spaz i don’t think thats especially nice either not 100% sure as i’ve never Been braindead
People aren’t given the death penalty for giving out flowers and candy.
Yeah 1 in 8 are given it for no reason at all and later exonerated.
agree and i think there are some circumstances where Kipling someone is justified but its never ethical, especially if the Person doesn’t Pose a threat anymore
How exactly is something ‘justified but not ethical’?
If something saves more people by killing some the action of killing few is unethical however because it saves more the action is just
Because cruelty.
Oh wow, this sounds so humane.
I think it can be improved though. Just give him general anesthesia 5m before the nitrogen mask.
That should be the most peaceful way to go.
You know you fucked up somewhere as a society when killing people is considered humane.
I mean, some people really deserve it. There are some living monsters out there, and I don’t believe in the sanctity of their life. I’d rather save a cow from a farm than save a serial murderer who raped the corpses of their victims. In my country these was this guy who raped, tortured and murdered like 60 children. He’s no longer people to me.
I do not need anything akin to religious holyness as a basis for respecting human life. I do not want to kill them, not because their life is sacred, but because I consider myself to be a decent human being.
Some of these people are also very much sick in a medical sense. Some are unfortunately the victims of former abuse. It does not matter what you think they deserve. If you want to be a good person you should help them (as in prison with therapy), because they clearly need it and you should be someone helping people in need.
EDIT: Just as I do not believe in religion, I also do not believe in monsters.
I think some people are in fact beyond help. They’d be a waste of resources that could actually help others who can change. Humans don’t have unlimited resources, so assuming we can help every single murderer and child rapist until they are reformed and ready to join society is just idealistic and unrealistic. So even if you don’t like it, this is better than letting them rot in a cell until they die of old age.
Plus, we’re just little bugs on a tiny rock in a universe so big we can’t even begin to comprehend. The only reason human life seems so important to you is because you’re a human. Personally, I’d rather focus on people making society a better place and making others happy instead of putting effort on a guy who rapes, tortures and beheads children.
The only argument for the death penalty was back before long term prisons were available and someone was too dangerous to be released in society. The death penalty should be obsolete.
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OK. I mean, if that’s what the inmate is requesting, why not allow it. He’s gonna be put to death anyway. Personally I don’t believe his “praying” will be of any use, in this life or the next - if there is one- because I don’t believe in that religious nonsense, or that someone can be “forgiven” for any crime involving murder anyway. But what’s the skin off anybody’s anus if he wants to be executed this way? That should at least be his decision to make.
But what’s the skin off anybody’s anus if he wants to be executed this way? That should at least be his decision to make.
The point is cruelty. People are objecting to execution by nitrogen because the prisoner doesn’t suffer enough. That’s the right-wing mentality in a nutshell. They think torturing someone doesn’t make them bad people if that someone “deserves” it.
Good lord. The man probably already lives in a mental hell every single day, what more cruelty does his situation require. Adding more torture to the procedure certainly won’t right any wrongs he may have done, and only unbalances the scales in the direction of bringing more cruelty into the situation than already existed.
Right, but for them, it’s all about revenge and suffering. They don’t care about anything else for anyone in prison. As far as they’re concerned (unless, of course, it’s one of their own), whatever the judge has ordered, that’s what you deserve.
Now I admit, apart from the cases where the death row inmate was exonerated, in general, the crimes they’ve been found guilty of are particularly horrific and atrocious, but we should be better than them. That’s what Republicans don’t seem to get. You shouldn’t sink down to the level of actual convicted murderers.
That’s a great point, and one I’ve tried to make to people (without much success) many times. If you become as cruel and fueled by revenge or hate as the person who did something terrible, then you’ve sunk to their level or even lower. Revenge never balances anyone’s scales - it just weighs the side with EVIL in it down with even greater weight.
And I’m not against capital punishment, in some ways it seems a little less cruel than giving someone a lifetime sentence in prison. I do agree with you absolutely on everything you’ve said.
Did he allow his victim to pray and say final words?
It doesn’t matter. We don’t do eye for an eye here.
Literally what the death penalty is. If what you said was true we would be working on rehabilitation.
How dare you undercut their platitude with reasoning.
The death penalty is not an ultimate punishment for a crime, in it’s most logical sense. It is based on a conclusion that an individual is ‘beyond saving’, evidenced by the actions they commit. Eliminating them from existence is the only guarantee they never do a similar action in the future.
There’s plenty of reasons why this reasoning falls apart , though - namely that quite often you can’t be 100% sure you have the actual culprit, or that they are actually ‘beyond saving’.
Murderer put to death. Don’t do eye for an eye. Hmm OK America.
I fundamentally oppose the death penalty, but if a state is going to insist on doing it I want them to do it as humanely as possible. It should never be done as “revenge.”
This isn’t the Old Testament, fool
No you’re right. America would absolutely never try to base legal decisions on religion. We are so far beyond that.
Wha…when did I say that?
You are saying that we wouldn’t act like that because this isn’t the Old testament and I am pointing out that we are trying very fucking hard to treat our legal system that way. That is literally what is happening right this second.
Probably not. But remember that ~4% of all death row inmates are innocent, so it may be that he didn’t kill anyone.
Also, shouldn’t the state be better than a murderer? Shouldn’t the mere fact that we believe we, as a society, are civilized mandate allowing a death row inmate respect before they die?
I’m not religious, so I don’t think praying and final words will do anything. But it won’t harm anyone, and if it makes him more comfortable as he goes out, especially in light of the likelihood he didn’t that to his victim, I’m not against it.
Should the state have the same low moral bar as criminals? (It’s a rhetorical question that was answered when the state decided to murder someone that’s not a threat anymore in cold blood)
