Alabama is seeking to become the first state to execute a prisoner by making him breathe pure nitrogen

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.

  • Square Singer
    6•1 year ago

    I am solidly against executions and quite aware of the moral dilemata.

    I was just on about how easy it actually would be.

    Why not carbon monoxide?

    Short answer, it’s flammable and dangerous to the people performing the executions. That’s why nitrogen is a decent possibility for something like this, it is inert, common, and can be acquired and vented away with little issue.

    Tbh, I don’t think that’s an issue. Carbon monoxide is used in slaughterhouses worldwide. You’d think if it’s safe enough to handle for unskilled workers at industrial scale that a few highly paid executioners could use it without blowing up the complex.

    Case in point: even the nazis managed to handle it at industrial scale 80 years ago. And their budget for an execution wasn’t remotely as high as the US has.

    I mean, it’s probably not as sexy, because it directly shows how straight-up evil the practice of state-sponsored murder is (you know, using the same methods as literally the Nazis did), but then again, if you are a murder state, you are already past the point where you had a right to discuss ethics and morals.

    • @adrian783
      -1•1 year ago

      you’re absolutely not past the point to discuss morals wtf?

      you think just because people are executed the methods don’t matter?

      • Square Singer
        6•1 year ago

        Tbh, yes. If you like state-sponsored murder, there is no point not using a simple, foolproof, painless method that is executed tens of thousands of times per day (on animals), just because it’s the method the Nazis preferred and thus makes you look a little bad.

        Mudering people already makes them look bad, and their mess with all these botched executions just makes them look bad AND incompetent.