Politics

10177 readers

25 users here now

In-depth political discussion from around the world; if it's a political happening, you can post it here.

Guidelines for submissions:

Where possible, post the original source of information.
- If there is a paywall, you can use alternative sources or provide an archive.today, 12ft.io, etc. link in the body.
Do not editorialize titles. Preserve the original title when possible; edits for clarity are fine.
Do not post ragebait or shock stories. These will be removed.
Do not post tabloid or blogspam stories. These will be removed.
Social media should be a source of last resort.

These guidelines will be enforced on a know-it-when-I-see-it basis.

Subcommunities on Beehaw:

Socialism

This community's icon was made by Aaron Schneider, under the CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.

founded 2 years ago

MODERATORS

Alabama condemned for nitrogen gas execution: ‘They intended to torture him’ (www.theguardian.com)

submitted 10 months ago by CaractacusPotts@lemmy.ca to c/politics

45 comments fedilink hide all child comments

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.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] Overzeetop 12 points 10 months ago

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).