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More than quarter of Alabama's death row inmates choose [nitrogen] gas over lethal injections
AP ^ | Aug. 25, 2018 | Kim Chandler

Posted on 08/25/2018 2:50:47 PM PDT by rickmichaels

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Some say inhaling nitrogen gas would be like dying on a plane that depressurizes in flight, swiftly killing all aboard. Now more than a quarter of Alabama’s death row inmates have signed statements saying they would prefer that gas over lethal injection or the electric chair when facing execution.

No inmate in the U.S. has been put to death with nitrogen gas before, and critics suspect at least some inmates are simply hoping to delay a date with the death chamber through the inevitable legal challenges ahead.

State corrections officials say 51 of Alabama’s 180 inmates have chosen nitrogen hypoxia, allowed a choice after Alabama lawmakers voted this year to authorize that alternative execution method. With difficulties obtaining execution drugs and litigation arising over claims of botched and horribly painful chemical injections this decade, Alabama is not alone as it joins Oklahoma and Mississippi in exploring that as a potential alternative.

John Palombi, an attorney with the Federal Defenders Program, said his group advised inmates to request the uncertainties of nitrogen gas over what he called the known “torture” of Alabama’s three-drug cocktail. They had a June 30 deadline to make a choice.

“Our decision to have our clients opt into use of nitrogen hypoxia was based on our belief that a three drug lethal injection protocol … is torturous and has tortured our clients,” Palombi wrote in an email, citing last year’s execution of Torrey McNabb and Ronald Smith Jr.’s the year before.

(Excerpt) Read more at nationalpost.com ...


TOPICS: Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: deathrow; execution
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1 posted on 08/25/2018 2:50:47 PM PDT by rickmichaels
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To: rickmichaels

Liquid Nitrogen


2 posted on 08/25/2018 2:52:20 PM PDT by butlerweave
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To: rickmichaels

Isn’t that one of the methods recommended by Dr. Kevrokian?


3 posted on 08/25/2018 2:53:03 PM PDT by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is either satire or opinion. Or both.)
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To: rickmichaels
Firing squad!

This awful killing by injection is weird and unnecessary.

4 posted on 08/25/2018 2:54:22 PM PDT by miss marmelstein
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To: butlerweave

Cheap. Abundant. Renewable. Fertilizer. Effective. Kills bad people.

The only downside is that it’s painless.


5 posted on 08/25/2018 2:54:24 PM PDT by lurk
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To: rickmichaels
"...our belief that a three drug lethal injection protocol … is torturous and has tortured our clients,”

And your point is...?

Reflect for a moment, if you will, on *why* your "clients" are where they are.

6 posted on 08/25/2018 2:59:28 PM PDT by Redbob (W.W.J.B.D.: What would Jack Bauer Do?)
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To: rickmichaels

I think carbon monoxide would be the least painful.


7 posted on 08/25/2018 3:00:10 PM PDT by Jonty30 (What Islam and secularism have in common is that they are both death by cults.)
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To: rickmichaels

Why not CO, simple carbon monoxide?

Surely someone in Alabama has got an old Chevy pickup that would do the trick?


8 posted on 08/25/2018 3:01:20 PM PDT by Redbob (W.W.J.B.D.: What would Jack Bauer Do?)
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To: rickmichaels

People on death row are there because they committed murders. They don’t deserve to have choices on anything, including their method of execution.


9 posted on 08/25/2018 3:02:19 PM PDT by Innovative ("Winning isn't everything, it's the only thing." -- Vince Lombardi)
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To: Jonty30

The build up of Carbon Monoxide triggers the feeling of suffocation, since air is 70% Nitrogen the body doesn’t recognize it as foreign, so you simply fall asleep.


10 posted on 08/25/2018 3:07:38 PM PDT by Husker24
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To: lurk

Nitrogen hypoxia is a common method of euthanizing stray animals. It is about as painless as possible.

The discomfort often associated with suffocation is caused by carbon dioxide. When one suffocates because of lack of circulation, the victim breathes in his own carbon dioxide. Elevated levels of CO2 in the blood stream trigger a painful and agonizing reaction. With nitrogen hypoxia, the victim passes out from lack of oxygen long before any distress is sensed.

In addition, there are no toxic chemicals or drugs which might injure prison personnel and require stringent security. It’s win-win.


11 posted on 08/25/2018 3:08:14 PM PDT by Lonesome in Massachussets (Molon Labe)
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To: Redbob
Why not CO, simple carbon monoxide?

CO is toxic. CO2 is inert. CO2 does not kill, it simply displaces O2, which is vital for life. Simply ventilating the gas chamber restores it to a safe condition. Much safer.

12 posted on 08/25/2018 3:10:52 PM PDT by Lonesome in Massachussets (Molon Labe)
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To: rickmichaels

Libs so worried about harming the killers during execution that they never granted those they killed.


13 posted on 08/25/2018 3:12:51 PM PDT by SkyDancer ( ~ Just Consider Me A Random Fact Generator ~ Eat Sleep Fly Repeat ~)
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To: Husker24

Inhalation of carbon monoxide may cause nausea and headaches, but otherwise causes no distress to its victims, which is why it’s so insidious.


14 posted on 08/25/2018 3:13:01 PM PDT by Lonesome in Massachussets (Molon Labe)
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To: SkyDancer
Libs so worried about harming the killers during execution that they never granted those they killed.

Liberalism is a great illustrator of the concept of "garbage in, garbage out."

Take a highly organized system, like the system of law and ethics that was built up over thousands of years in English common law, and inject nonsense into it at many levels (affirmative action and other types of "social justice" tinkering), and within a generation or two you have a legal system that protects the guilty and menaces the innocent.

And the bad guys laugh through their fingers at us.

15 posted on 08/25/2018 3:20:43 PM PDT by Steely Tom ([Seth Rich] == [the Democrat's John Dean])
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To: butlerweave
Liquid Nitrogen

LOL! Consicles.

16 posted on 08/25/2018 3:20:56 PM PDT by Jeff Chandler (I -- a smelly sheep -- was told to "Make a mess." Game on.)
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To: Lonesome in Massachussets
CO2 is inert

They would cough to death in great distress.

17 posted on 08/25/2018 3:22:24 PM PDT by Jeff Chandler (I -- a smelly sheep -- was told to "Make a mess." Game on.)
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To: rickmichaels

Helium might actually be entertaining.


18 posted on 08/25/2018 3:24:11 PM PDT by Jeff Chandler (I -- a smelly sheep -- was told to "Make a mess." Game on.)
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To: Lonesome in Massachussets
CO2 is inert.

CO2 is not physiologically inert. However, killing inmates with CO2 might help reverse global warming.

19 posted on 08/25/2018 3:26:54 PM PDT by Jeff Chandler (I -- a smelly sheep -- was told to "Make a mess." Game on.)
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To: Jonty30

Nope. Nitrogen is. It’s inert, build up of CO2 is what causes the body to want to take a breath. With no O2 no CO2. You just breathe normally until you pass out and die.

I would chipper would be more or less painless. Not to mention more satisfying for the victims families.


20 posted on 08/25/2018 3:29:21 PM PDT by AFreeBird
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