Alabama has already tried once to execute Kenneth Smith. On the evening of Nov. 17, 2022, Smith lay on a gurney as workers tried for an hour to insert needles into the veins of his hand, arms and collarbone so they could put him to death by lethal injection. Just before midnight, the execution was called off.
Surviving an execution is uncommon. Only one other prisoner alive today has done it — a death row prisoner from Alabama whom the state also failed to execute by lethal injection. But Smith’s case is even more unusual. When the state again tries to execute him, on Jan. 25, Alabama plans to use nitrogen gas. It will be the first time the gas has been used as an execution method in the U.S.
The method has come under scrutiny for safety and human rights reasons. NPR exclusively published a document that showed the Alabama Department of Corrections had required Smith’s spiritual adviser, the Rev. Dr. Jeff Hood, to sign a waiver acknowledging that the state believes he could be at risk of exposure to the gas. In January, the United Nations published a statement that declared U.N. experts were concerned the method could lead to grave suffering.
I’ve heard nitrogen gas is perhaps the most humane method (though I oppose capital punishment). The feeling of asphyxiation comes from rising CO2 in the brainstem. If he can continue expelling the CO2 you won’t feel anything except as you go hypoxic you’ll become more dazed and confused until you simply pass out.
Then again I’ve always wondered why we don’t just put these people under anesthesia and then overdose on morphine.
That one’s in part because cruelty is by design I imagine, but also because the people giving those injections aren’t medical professionals and can’t legally obtain those substances. Guess that also explains how they can fuck up finding veins this bad. From what I’ve read and heard (In Last Week Tonight among others, I believe) they basically just use toxic crap that chemically burns the inmate from the inside and makes them asphyxiate while conscious. And of course they turn out to be undeserving of an execution around 5% of the time.
Wait, seriously? They aren’t even medical professionals administering the substances…?
Guess that would kind of go against the Hippocratic Oath.