Execution by Nitrogen gas

[mortuarymary]

Federal court says Alabama can carry first nitrogen hypoxia execution


https://mol.im/a/13003773


Kenneth Eugene Smith, 58, will tonight become the first person in the US and possibly the world to be executed by nitrogen hypoxia after his appeal that it was untested and could lead to a cruel death was rejected by a federal court.

He has spent more than three decades on death row over a 1989 murder-for-hire plot, and last year survived a botched attempt to kill him by lethal injection after bungling orderlies at Holman Prison in Atmore spent 90 minutes trying to find a vein.

Tonight, Smith will be taken from his holding cell and strapped to the same gurney on which he survived the lethal injection attempt, before he is given the chance to make a final statement to his family and that of his victim.

A curtain will then be pulled back over the small window in front of the viewing area before an industrial-style respirator mask is fitted to his face and pure nitrogen pumped through it for at least 15 minutes - causing him to die from a lack of oxygen.

Federal court says Alabama can carry first nitrogen hypoxia execution


https://mol.im/a/13003773
No question , it was just a post to share.

 

[4g1vvvven]

God I wish that was me

 

[mortuarymary]

God I wish that was me

Wonder if it's painful or do they knock you out first?

 

[Praestat_Mori]

Would be interesting to read official reports how peaceful it was, should be visible publicly.

 

[UKscotty]

I think a lot of us are watching the updates on this one.. looks interesting

 

[Praestat_Mori]

Wonder if it's painful or do they knock you out first?

You'd be kocked out within a few seconds bc of lack of oxygen. N2 / inert gas method is considered to be very peaceful.

 

[mortuarymary]

You'd be kocked out within a few seconds bc of lack of oxygen. N2 / inert gas method is considered to be very peaceful.

interesting to know. Thank you

 

[outrider567]

Wonder if it's painful or do they knock you out first?

Its never painful, its a peaceful death

 

[mortuarymary]

Would be interesting to read official reports how peaceful it was, should be visible publicly.

I think so too. I honestly thought with his first botched execution he'd just be life in prison.

 

[Praestat_Mori]

interesting to know. Thank you

The thing about it is you'll not only need a N2 cylinder 8with 99.9% pure N2 but also a lot of gears, incl a SCBA / SCUBA - Mask / EEBD hood / Exit bag. That's somehow "expensive" to buy and some tech knowledge is also very useful when considering this method.

 

[mortuarymary]

The thing about it is you'll not only need a N2 cylinder 8with 99.9% pure N2 but also a lot of gears, incl a SCBA / SCUBA - Mask / EEBD hood / Exit bag. That's somehow "expensive" to buy and some tech knowledge is also very useful when considering this method.

We actually have this at home. Partner does diving. So, the huge metal cylinder got N2 in it?

 

[Praestat_Mori]

I think so too. I honestly thought with his first botched execution he'd just be life in prison.

Well actually "(very uncomfortable) life in prison" would be the harder punishment for certain deeds than death penalty but that's a totally different point that'd be needed to be discussed.

 

[TimetoGo!]

Wouldn't it be possible to fill a small space (to fit inside of course) with nitrogen/helium/argon , seal it and then just fall alseep?

 

[Praestat_Mori]

We actually have this at home. Partner does diving. So, the huge metal cylinder got N2 in it?

For diving? No! It contains air what we breath, but if you do extreme diving, very deep you need different "air mixture" bc above certain water pressures oxygen in the amount we normally breath it becomes a poison.

Wouldn't it be possible to fill a small space (to fit inside of course) with nitrogen/helium/argon , seal it and then just fall alseep?

Too difficult! N2 / inert gases are not a poison unlike CO! It's better to do it with a mask/exit bag. Much less oxygen has to be replaced.

 

[mortuarymary]

For diving? No! It contains air what we breath, but if you do extreme diving, very deep you need different "air mixture" bc above certain water pressures oxygen in the amount we normally breath it becomes a poison.

Did wonder. Thanks for that.

Wouldn't it be possible to fill a small space (to fit inside of course) with nitrogen/helium/argon , seal it and then just fall alseep?

Use a tent I guess

 

[Praestat_Mori]

Did wonder. Thanks for that.

Use a tent I guess

won't work, maybe not effective, tent is not air-tight enough. Mask is much better, imo. See my above post.

You'd need to fill several m³ with inert gas and keep that space air-tight. Too difficult imo.

CO is poisonous by itself you don't need to exclude all oxygen in the tent/room to have a lethal environment.

I hope that explains it.

 

[TimetoGo!]

won't work, maybe not effective, tent is not air-tight enough. Mask is much better, imo. See my above post.

You'd need to fill several m³ with inert gas and keep that space air-tight. Too difficult imo.

CO is poisonous by itself you don't need to exclude all oxygen in the tent/room to have a lethal environment.

I hope that explains it.

I feel it could be done with a hot tub, with the lid on it, and then seal the pipes.

Just wondering if it would explode with the pressure though? And how the oxygen would be replaced by nitrogen or helium

 

[uzuf86]

What a lucky bastard this guy, getting a professionally done Nitrogen Hypoxia setup for free, and getting a first class ticket to the bus without any effort. Sometimes I feel I need to go to jail and get myself a death sentence, but it's not possible without hurting or harming anyone, which I will NEVER EVER do in my life.
One should only have the right only to end their own life, and other lives are other lives, period.

 

[GeneTunney]

It'll be interesting to read some honest accounts from those who observed the execution, once the dust settles. The early reports are clearly sensationalist and untrustworthy.

 

[outrider567]

It'll be interesting to read some honest accounts from those who observed the execution, once the dust settles. The early reports are clearly sensationalist and untrustworthy.

Looks like it was a disaster, he took a long time to die and was gasping and convulsing(Thank God)--Looks like a screw up with the mask, let O2 in, they should have consulted Kenneth Law lol, he would have done it correctly

 

[GeneTunney]

Looks like it was a disaster, he took a long time to die and was gasping and convulsing(Thank God)--Looks like a screw up with the mask, let O2 in, they should have consulted Kenneth Law lol, he would have done it correctly

I think some of the early reporting has been sensationalist in nature and possibly misleading.

From CBS:

Alabama DOC commissioner (responding to reports Smith was `writhing for two minutes`): "He was holding his breath for as long as he could...struggled against his restraints a little bit, but there's some involuntary movement and angled breathing. So that was all expected and is in the side effects that we've seen, researched, with nitrogen hypoxia.."

 

[penguinl0v3s]

I laughed so hard at some of the comments that 'experts' made. That this man was supposedly at risk for "choking to death on his own vomit." Or that "We are being exposed to nitrogen gas in a way that nobody in human history has ever been exposed to nitrogen gas."

Look at this article, which says that nitrogen asphyxiation, probably the most painless method out there, is a "torturous death."

United Nations human rights experts and lawyers for Smith had sought to prevent it, saying the method was risky, experimental and could lead to a torturous death or non-fatal injury.

These so-called experts have also called that N makes you foam at the mouth and suffocate, when it's also peaceful, causing respiratory depression and what feels like sleep. Much like Fentanyl, which drug users unanimously agree is a very painless overdose.

 

[UKscotty]

Sounds like he died peaceful and asleep.

He thrashed and resisted breathing, so what.

 

[lifeisbutadream]

All the accounts of people and animals exposed to a nitrogen atmosphere that i have ever read about indicate that it is a totally peaceful and painless way to go. For instance I read about a goat happily munching on grass and then abruptly falling down dead, or a workman trying to retrieve a tool from an area that had been accidentally flooded with N, and then poof he's gone! No pain no suffering, instantaneous. It sounds like the best method of all to me.

I don't know anything about the Alabama case, what monstrous crime or crimes he committed, but why did he deserve such a merciful way out when all the good people here have to worry about improvising something that the powers that be try to make as difficult and humiliating and painful as they can?

 

[affinity]

Looks like it was a disaster, he took a long time to die and was gasping and convulsing(Thank God)--Looks like a screw up with the mask, let O2 in, they should have consulted Kenneth Law lol, he would have done it correctly

22 minutes in total, including at least 2 minutes writhing around and shaking while on the gurney. How they screwed up something so simple and easy to research is

 

[soverydonewiththis]

"22 minutes in total, including at least 2 minutes writhing around and shaking while on the gurney. How they screwed up something so simple and easy to research is "'

The two minutes was holding his breath and trying to stay alive. I won't be. I'll be stepping on the gas pedal of the fuckin' bus, fer Christ's sake.

 

[outrider567]

"22 minutes in total, including at least 2 minutes writhing around and shaking while on the gurney. How they screwed up something so simple and easy to research is "'

The two minutes was holding his breath and trying to stay alive. I won't be. I'll be stepping on the gas pedal of the fuckin' bus, fer Christ's sake.

Yep, I'll be taking deep breaths, I'll be embracing it, just like I did with my own tests on myself

 

[mortuarymary]

He didn't really deserve a peaceful end. He was a murderer after all.

 

[sanction]

So both attempts encountered problems? First time they couldn't find his vein for 90 minutes, and had to cancel. Then this second attempt took 22 minutes. Damn... safe to say this guy definitely suffered from his consequences. From the decades in jail, to failed attempts. Too bad for him I guess

I wonder what type of struggle he mainly felt for those 22 minutes. Is it some type of physical pain? Or is it the discomfort of suffocating, constantly trying to grasp for air?

And damn, just found out he committed the murder for only $1000. Probably a few decades ago it was worth a bit more, but still small amount. Probably could of easily earned that from just a couple months at some regular job? What an extreme mistake he has made

 

[ConstantineXI]

Despite all of the thrashing and so on post-unconsciousness, when I read the description it sounds a lot like he was out within a minute or so of him no longer holding his breath - the articles I've seen suggest that he held his breath for two minutes (or thereabouts) and that fairly quickly after that his eyes rolled back in his head. He was probably out cold at that point (if you believe the writeup from Dignitas that was posted elsewhere), and the thrashing just...seems to be a thing. Everything else broadly lines up with the Dignitas stuff, just with the possibility of a poor gas setting or imperfect seal being at issue (and to be honest, reading the various issues they've had with executions I get the feeling that the Alabama DOC couldn't arrange a piss-up in a brewery).

But with convulsions, that has always been a mess with this sort of thing - it is very hard for an observer to tell what is post-unconsciousness and what is pre-unconsciousness if they don't know what they're looking for. If they could keep the electrodes attached reliably, brain wave readings would be quite instructive.