State’s ‘slow and agonizing’ execution of Kenneth Smith using an untested method labeled as cruel by experts and advocates

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/14097254

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.

After the nitrogen gas began flowing, Smith convulsed on the gurney for several minutes. The state had previously said the nitrogen gas would cause Smith to lose consciousness in seconds and die within minutes, according to the Associated Press.

“I’ve been to four previous executions and I’ve never seen a condemned inmate thrash in the way that Kenneth Smith reacted to the nitrogen gas,” Lee Hedgepeth, a journalist who witnessed the execution, told the BBC’s Newsday programme.

  • PugJesus@kbin.social
    481·
    10 months ago

    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.

    It would have been quicker and more merciful just to shoot him, Jesus Christ.

    • mozz@mbin.grits.dev
      25·
      10 months ago

      Yeah. I don’t agree we should have a death penalty at all. It seems pretty telling that over the years we seem to have been progressively getting more painful and extreme in the methods used, all while touting the new method as obviously safer or more humane.

      And, I was in favor of nitrogen as a genuinely painless method of killing someone until I heard the details of how they went about it. It really does seem like cruelty to the prisoner is being designed into the process.