Alabama to allow first execution using nitrogen hypoxia

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On Wednesday, the Alabama Supreme Court ruled in favor of a motion to allow the state to execute Kenneth Smith with nitrogen hypoxia.

The use of nitrogen hypoxia as an execution method has never been tested. The gas has a history of being extremely deadly and could pose a threat to the staff and spiritual advisers present in the execution chamber.

Attorney General Steve Marshall posted a statement on X, formerly Twitter, after the court granted his motion to allow Alabama to use nitrogen hypoxia on Smith.

Alison Mollman, interim legal director of the ACLU of Alabama, made a statement denouncing the use of nitrogen hypoxia. Mollman stated that Marshall and Governor Kay Ivey could be putting the lives of staff, spiritual advisers, media, and victims at risk if they do not stop Smith’s execution.

Alabama previously tried to execute Smith last year but failed due to a botched lethal injection. Now, they are trying again, only with a method never tested before and could harm or kill others.

Update on Page 8, post #148.​

 

[mofu mofo]

to do that you need to hypercool compressed air down to very low temperatures and then do a fractional distillation of the liquified air. it requires some pretty high tech industrial equipment and personnel trained in operating it.

That was the original method. You can now do it by pushing compressed air through media that absorbs the oxygen and other molecules that are not nitrogen. Oxygen concentrators work in the same way (or one of the ways they work, anyway) but they strip nitrogen out of the gas stream.

 

[Kuritan Deplorable]

There's also some anecdotal evidence that you are conscious for a few seconds after beheading until your brain uses up the last bit of stored oxygen, we're talking only 10-15 seconds or some such here., but still. Death by guillotine is probably not instantaneous, pretty darn quick, but not guaranteed insta-death like the electric chair or taking a whiff of cyanide gas.

Wouldn't you more or less immediately blackout regardless from the sudden and continual drop in blood pressure? Bystanders may notice autonomic movements but consciousness would pass in a moment.

 

[TowinKarz]

Wouldn't you more or less immediately blackout regardless from the sudden and continual drop in blood pressure? Bystanders may notice autonomic movements but consciousness would pass in a moment.

True, it's not like you can ask the head.....

It's more of an academic question anyway, "are you clinically dead for 5 seconds before REALLY dead?"

The electric chair method of execution is probably the most painful of any we devised because the electric current contracts every muscle in the body far beyond its normal tolerances, and contrary to common belief, its not instant knock-out or death, you're effectively roasting the person from the inside out with the goal of inducing a termination of cardiac functions,

The very first execution by electrocution was a grim farce: they left the juice on for several solid minutes, assuming that the fact the corpse kept twitching meant he wasn't dead yet. They only stopped when the stench in the room from burning flesh became unbearable. Autopsy revealed the man's skullcap and brain had been reduced to hardened carbon.

But, it wasn't supposed to be humane, use of the electric chair had been championed by Thomas Edison as a way to publicly smear AC current as too dangerous for use in homes and thereby ensure his own DC current would become the standard.

For him? A gruesome botched execution would work just as well for this as a clean one, Westinghouse's name was on the generator either way......

 

[Kuritan Deplorable]

It's more of an academic question anyway, "are you clinically dead for 5 seconds before REALLY dead?"

it wasn't supposed to be humane

The idea of humane executions always amuses me. If your going to kill people, have a good reason. If you don't "feel good" about killing someone, maybe you shouldn't be killing them. And if you do feel good about putting them in the ground, some suffering is probably cathartic for those involved rather than traumatic. I'm all for reasonable measures to avoid it being torture over execution, but at the end of the day its supposed to be a punishment. Death ain't pretty, and all civilizing it does is mask over something that should be bad.

 

[TowinKarz]

The idea of humane executions always amuses me. If your going to kill people, have a good reason. If you don't "feel good" about killing someone, maybe you shouldn't be killing them. And if you do feel good about putting them in the ground, some suffering is probably cathartic for those involved rather than traumatic. I'm all for reasonable measures to avoid it being torture over execution, but at the end of the day its supposed to be a punishment. Death ain't pretty, and all civilizing it does is mask over something that should be bad.

I can sleep soundly knowing the man I just described above, who roasted in the chair, William Kemmler, died as he did.

He was a bonna-fide axe-murderer who'd killed a woman with a hatchet.

 

[Sparkling Yuzu]

I'm pro-death penalty but we don't need any innovations in this, good old hemp rope should be all we bother with. They aren't worth the price of acquiring chemicals, developing and maintaining devices like guillotines, electric chairs etc.
We need to stop being pussies about hanging: "oh no his widdle neck will snap and big hurty!!!! stawp dis inhumanities!!!!!" If someone is being hanged, they likely caused just as much pain for their victims, if not more.

 

[Cougar Pump]

There was a brit documentary years ago that concluded Nitrogen Hypoxia was the safest, most humane execution method. But it also found it unlikely to be adopted because punishment is a major motivation for those who impose the death penalty.

Horizon: How to Kill a Human Being (200

It was a really good watch, and appears to be available online here.

 

[Chuck McGill]

Well as long as they don't put wooden doors on the chamber, I think we'll be alright.

 

[Snekposter]

I can sleep soundly knowing the man I just described above, who roasted in the chair, William Kemmler, died as he did.

He was a bonna-fide axe-murderer who'd killed a woman with a hatchet.

Why is it always axes and hatchets and never something cool like a sword?

 

[BelUwUga]

to do that you need to hypercool compressed air down to very low temperatures and then do a fractional distillation of the liquified air. it requires some pretty high tech industrial equipment and personnel trained in operating it.

They make oxygen concentrators that are <$2K. It stands to reason if it is removing oxygen from atmosphere to supply it, it is also venting de-oxygenated nitrogen somewhere. This is something we trust senile old people to operate for themselves. Would it really need high tech/expertise? Failing that some quick research shows a big Nitro tank runs $250 for the tank and $40 for the fill.

 

[Nigger Stripes]

I was hoping they were going to put him in a diving tank and feed him an incorrect air mixture until he died but it seems reality isn't a cave diving rescue video.

 

[dustbuster]

There was a brit documentary years ago that concluded Nitrogen Hypoxia was the safest, most humane execution method. But it also found it unlikely to be adopted because punishment is a major motivation for those who impose the death penalty.

Horizon: How to Kill a Human Being (200

It was a really good watch, and appears to be available online here.

Having been clinically dead myself, and under intensive care in the time surrounding that period, I'm going to vote for overdose via ramp-up of opiates.
Your blood oxygen level drops due to depressed pulmonary activity until you fall asleep (and before you fall asleep, you're high as a kite).
If opiates are continually introduced after that, you simply expire in your sleep.

 

[Cougar Pump]

Having been clinically dead myself, and under intensive care in the time surrounding that period, I'm going to vote for overdose via ramp-up of opiates.
Your blood oxygen level drops due to depressed pulmonary activity until you fall asleep (and before you fall asleep, you're high as a kite).
If opiates are continually introduced after that, you simply expire in your sleep.

There's also the barbiturates that are used for assisted death/voluntary euthanasia (Dignitas etc).
There was a documentary on that too, not sure there's any reason they wouldn't be a good choice for executions.

 

[Big Brutus]

Well as long as they don't put wooden doors on the chamber, I think we'll be alright.

Man, the fact your username is Chuck McGill makes this post so much funnier. It sounds like something he would say.

 

[Absurdist Laughter]

I might be wrong but...hypoxia is a word that describes something that is hypoxic right? Wouldn't it be more accurate to describe it as nitrogen asphyxiation? Also, I'll hold my breath (heh) in wait for the environmentalists to throw some sort of a fit over this.

 

[Cougar Pump]

I might be wrong but...hypoxia is a word that describes something that is hypoxic right? Wouldn't it be more accurate to describe it as nitrogen asphyxiation? Also, I'll hold my breath (heh) in wait for the environmentalists to throw some sort of a fit over this.

Asphyxia is caused by an injury or obstruction of the airway while hypoxia is caused by insufficient delivery or utilization of oxygen.

 

[Manul Otocolobus]

Hows that now? By that logic using the gas chamber would put everyones lives at risk as well. Especially considering the gas involved is hydrogen cyanide. The ACLU is acting like the DOC doesn't know how to operate a gas chamber properly. The only thing really changing here is the specific gas being used

That said, it should be interesting to see how this type of execution goes. Assuming he ever actually ends up being executed.

I also would like to know their reasoning on this. N2 (since nitrogen's natural state is diatomic, like oxygen) is substantially larger in a molecular sense than hydrogen cyanide. Any chamber that can handle hydrogen cyanide can easily handle molecular nitrogen.

there's a lot of money to be made in ~medical~ executions.
need to pay a real medical doctor, or even several, possibly with specialized assistants. need super special custom equipment to do it, and need special medical supplies..

firing squad on the other hand is dirt cheap. rifles and ammo and men to pull the trigger are very easy to come by for government, so there's very little opportunity for grifting and corruption.

Doctors are very, very rarely involved. Typically it is all carried out by prison staff. Most state medical boards bar physicians from participating in any prisoner executions as a requirement for licensing.

That being said, based off what I've read, nitrogen hypoxia is the most surefire way to painlessly and quickly put the condemned to death without turning their chest cavity into ground beef. Even lethal injection is very doubtful in that regard.

From my understanding of anatomy and physiology, this is completely accurate.

 

[OvercookedBacon]

I was hoping they were going to put him in a diving tank and feed him an incorrect air mixture until he died but it seems reality isn't a cave diving rescue video.

Nah ... two words.
Explosive decompression.

 

[Manul Otocolobus]

Nah ... two words.
Explosive decompression.

If you ever want to read the definitive occurrence of that phenomenon, read up on the Byford Dolphin diving bell "incident". Just the text description of what happened in the investigation report is nightmare fuel. I strongly suggest you do not look for the actual pictures that were part of the investigation.

 

[OvercookedBacon]

If you ever want to read the definitive occurrence of that phenomenon, read up on the Byford Dolphin. Just the text description of what happened in the investigation report is nightmare fuel. I strongly suggest you do not look for the actual pictures that were part of the investigation.

That's exactly why I brought it up.