is this what a civilized nation does? Other advanced countries have done away with the death penalty. It is proven not to be a deterrent for others committing crime, it is often carried out on the wrong people, and it is the state sanctioning murder done in the most painful way. It is revenge and vengeance only. Also, with so many overdose deaths, why not give him an overdose of fentanyl or morphine? Too humane? Hugs. Scottie
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The Birmingham News reports:
Alabama Death Row inmate Kenneth Eugene Smith on Thursday night became the first prisoner to die using a new untested method of execution in the United States—suffocation by nitrogen gas. The 58-year-old was executed at William C. Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore. In announcing the execution had been carried out, Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey stated: “I pray that Elizabeth Sennett’s family can receive closure after all these years dealing with that great loss.”
Smith and his spiritual advisor, the Rev. Jeff Hood, had issued this joint statement prior to the execution: “The eyes of the world are on this impending moral apocalypse. Our prayer is that people will not turn their heads. We simply cannot normalize the suffocation of each other.” Hood said he has witnessed five lethal injection executions over the past year or so. “Lethal injection is preferable every single day,” over nitrogen, he said. “What we saw was minutes of someone struggling for his life,” he said.
The Associated Press reports:
Officials said Kenneth Eugene Smith, 58, was pronounced dead at 8:25 p.m. at an Alabama prison after breathing pure nitrogen gas through a face mask to cause oxygen deprivation.
The execution took about 22 minutes from the time between the opening and closing of the curtains to the viewing room. Smith appeared to remain conscious for several minutes.
For at least two minutes, he appeared to shake and writhe on the gurney, sometimes pulling against the restraints. That was followed by several minutes of heavy breathing, until breathing was no longer perceptible.
Scottie's Playtime 
Hi Scottie;
I have thought long and hard about the death penalty. It may surprise you, but I am not against it in theory, only in practice.
When you consider that the death penalty process takes years to complete, I believe that the very nature of it is torture. Consider that you place a person in a position where they cannot really effect any change to their outcome, an outcome that they are very aware culminates in the end of their life. There is no fight, rarely a plead, a beg, and effectively no hope. They are placed on “death row” to await a termination, and any loved ones they may have wait with them – never able to really find closure to this ultimatum until its actual conclusion. That is torture.
Scottie, as you and Ron were once in the hospitals, you know that the human condition seeks to hang on to life. Through the use of onboard chemicals, a willingness to cast off unnecessary functions and even body parts, the body will seek survival. Is it any wonder that the person subject to N2 will keep fighting to live despite the lack of O2 – and recalling that N2 comprises some 70% of our normal breath. The body robs O2 from any area it can, casting off portions to maintain itself at any cost. That is torture.
The truth is that “execution” in the modern era has developed “humane” ways of killing someone not for the humanity of the death, but the convenience of the killer. A true death blow of a sword through the heart, the neck, guillotine, those were messy but quick. One of the most iconic and horrible pictures to come out of the Vietnam era was the execution of a young man by a S. Vietnamese soldier – horrifying to watch, but quickly done for said young man. But what price to the executioner? Shooting squads used to have numerous blanks so the executioner could take solace that it wasn’t his bullet, perhaps… Electric chair executions used double set ups so the executioner could tell himself it was the other handle that was hot this time, not his.
The death penalty in and of itself is a cruelty, but I think a necessity. It is not a deterrent, it is not going to stop crime, and the idea of it being “the ultimate punishment” only – again – makes it the ultimate cruelty. Should we come to the conclusion that a person is irredeemable, that the ending of their life is truly the beginning of moving on, then do so – quickly, efficiently, decisively. If the taking of a human life is horrifying, difficult to watch and do, why then you are human and sane after all.
hugs;
randy
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Hi Randy. I think we will have to disagree on this subject. First I want to say my opinion is if I were sentenced to a long prison term I would ask for death, long for the release of the torment of prison. But I don’t support the death penalty, and below I will detail why.
I want to stress the biggest problem with detention, jail, prison, incarceration in the US is designed to punish and dehumanize the prisoners. Unlike other countries that advanced incarceration programs that prioritize education and rehabilitation, that are designed to move the offender back into society as a productive member. Those countries have less recidivism and much less incarceration times, with the result of a lower crime rate.
The biggest issue with the death penalty is the fact far too many on death row did not commit the crime they were found guilty of. Since 1973, 196 former death-row prisoners have been exonerated of all charges related to the wrongful convictions that had put them on death row. ttps://deathpenaltyinfo.org/policy-issues/innocence . One in 25 criminal defendants who has been handed a death sentence in the United States has likely been erroneously convicted. That number—4.1% to be exact—comes from a new analysis of more than 3 decades of data on death sentences and death row exonerations across the United States. https://www.science.org/content/article/more-4-death-row-inmates-may-be-innocent . While you can not give back time spent in prison nor erase the memories or emotional toll of that time spent on US prisons, the governments can try to make up for it in many ways. If our society values truth and real justice.
There is no way to return life once taken. There is no way for the government to make the person whole again.
The other problem I have with the death penalty is the idea of the message it sends. It is OK for the government to kill. That leads to the idea that government agents being allowed to kill. That means extrajudicial killing. The idea that if you represent the government law enforcement, you have a right to decide to kill people based on your judgement. That leads to allowing prison personal the ability to kill those who act up. That leads to police being able to people they encounter with impunity. We all know and have seen how that works.
Another big problem I have with the death penalty is the racial componete, especally in the south. I was going to copy links but when I looked into it it would be a major post on its own. So I will just post the links. I start with the most detailed break down one. This one has detailed numbers by counties. https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/news/dpic-analysis-racial-disparities-persisted-in-the-u-s-death-sentences-and-executions-in-2019 . This on is a much easier read but from 2020 which leaves out how much worse the desperity has become as racism again gains ground in the US.
Because of these reasons and the idea I have that life should be fought for if at all possible. That almost everyone can be rehabilitated. My view that although there are a few people who have such bad mental health issues they need very strict restriction on interaction with society but that it is the duty of government to provide the best accommodations for them including housing, medical, and security needs. My honest belief that people are redeemable so that if they made a mistake that hurt others, and they don’t want to do that again, we should help them with support by welcoming them back to the community while providing them the help they need. My honest belief that the US justice system is not about justice but power over others, control, punishment, and causing as much pain as possible to those under legal detention. It is about scaring them and making people so terrified to be either apprehended or reoffending. Some people make the mistake of claiming that stops crimes. It doesn’t, it just causes those that commit them to think they have to go to the maximum to keep from being caught or apprehended.
Sorry this got so long. I just really think the death penalty is wrong across the board. Plus as you said it is not a deterrent. Only people who get convinced there is an afterlife and that in that afterlife they will be punished is death a fearful thing. To me death is just the ceasing to live. Yes I like living, not ready to stop, but if life becomes so painful, the conditions so bad, then yes death of knowing nothing or having no feeling / knowledge / sensations just the act of not being would be a better alternative. Hugs. Scottie
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Like Randy I am not against a Death Penalty in theory. But that is for another discussion.
In this case though the whole process comes across as barbaric and needlessly cruel. A body will naturally fight for life and this long drawn out choking is ‘Cruel and Unusual’ . Coupled with the fact that the role of the person executed is still disputed.
No, this will not do at all.
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unfortunately the death penalty is about nothing but punishment. It never was, and never shall be a deterrent to committing crime. And it seems that we just keep finding more evil ways to legally murder those who we should be rehabilitating.
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I was kinda quiet while you were quiet, Scottie, and this was the primary reason, for me. I worked hard, with AI and DPA. I made calls, wrote letters, sent emails, and made more calls. The governor’s staff are so nice and polite. Gassing a person to death without sedation is all sorts of wrong. A couple of veterinarians’s associations even wrote against using nitrogen to kill without pre-medicating. Seriously.
Obviously, I’m anti-state-convict-killing by any method, first. But if it must be done, why not just shoot them up with morphine and be done? It would be cheap and painless for all. The bloodthirsty states who are no better than the people they kill (in every citizen’s name, I’ll remind) go to great lengths to be inhumane, unusual, and even cruel in their methods. It costs the state (again, every citizen) money, and causes continued pain and grief to the surviving loved ones of the victim of the crime. The stats are there, and the stats are real.
Hard life/no parole sentences are far more economical for a state, and they get the criminal out of the victims’s faces so they truly may heal. It’s a rare survivor (I’ve read of none, and I’ve read everything available) who says they feel better after an execution, even after McVeigh’s.
Anyway, there’s a little more background re me. Smith never tried to say he didn’t do it (unlike the two US executions prior, to which there were confessions by other people, and unadmitted exculpatory evidence the SCOTUS decided not to sit and hear,) so there’s that. I guess at least AL can sleep knowing they didn’t kill an innocent person.
Now I better go up and read the other comments! Thanks for the rant space.
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