Posted on 01/25/2024 6:59:55 PM PST by Morgana
Kenneth Eugene Smith has become the first person in history to be executed with nitrogen gas.
The convicted killer, 58, was put to death in the William C. Holman facility's execution chamber in Atmore, Alabama.
After the reading of his last rights, a tight gas mask was placed over Smith's nose and mouth, before a stream of 100 percent nitrogen gas suffocated him. The gas mask remained on his face for 15 minutes to ensure the murderer was dead.
Witnesses were led into the viewing room at 6:55pm, and Smith was pronounced dead half an hour later. Despite fears over the untested method going wrong, there is no early indication the execution did not go smoothly.
He was sentenced to death in 1996 for the murder-for-hire slaying of a preacher's wife in 1988, where he was paid just $1,000 for the hit.
Smith's pastor John Ewell told DailyMail.com before his execution that the killer was 'really struggling' with the reality of his imminent death, and officials said he barely touched his final meal of steak, hashbrowns and eggs from Waffle House. The historic execution divided opinions, including among Supreme Court justices who voted 6-3 to allow the procedure to go ahead, with the untested method previously branded 'torture' by the UN.
Smith's execution marked the first time a new method had been used on America's death row since lethal injections were first introduced 42 years ago.
But one of the primary reasons Alabama has turned to nitrogen gas for Smith's execution has been the widespread struggles American prisons have had in obtaining lethal injection drugs in recent years.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
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“..Their tank was huge, about 8 ft tall and at least 4 ft wide.......I wouldn’t go near it if I could avoid it...”
Wow! I use a small 125cf J-size bottle to fill motorcycle and car tires with, and it lasts for quite a long time before I have to have it refilled.
They must be planning on doing some serious number of executions to have a tank that big. More nitrogen to em!!!
I used to be 100% for the death penalty until I realized how corrupt gov’t is. Now I’m like unless we can 100% guarantee the person did the crime I’m not for it.
Prosecutors use it to get confessions that aren’t legit. And people who are innocent have been put to death.
There should be an extra standard for the death penalty. Not just beyond a reasonable doubt. But 100% guilty guaranteed. There is no way imaginable that he didn’t’ commit this crime.
That was the tank where I used to work. It was used on Electronics Testing and Production..............
Doesn’t sound like torture, in fact, it took his breath away.
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All from different sources to see their “take” on the story.
Next!
I don’t believe in Capital Punishment in the first place; but I’ve become distrustful of the judicial system generally, considering how it has been going in other areas.
One useless dead man gets too much attention
I knew this was going to happen. I said this on a thread from several months ago. It’s a painful way to die. Whatever idiot doctor said it was going to be quick and painless should have his license taken away. I am not debating whether it should have been painless or (per his crime) painful - that’s a separate discussion. But executing by nitrogen is in fact painful because it will trigger the gasp reflex. Lack of oxygen triggers the respiratory system to breathe deeper — or gasp, which only becomes more and more violent with time until the person passes out from hypoxia.
“ Hashbowns from Waffle House? Smothered and covered?
”
I hope they burned it to a crisp before sending him to hell 🔥
“Why are there 3 threads on this??????”
Because everyone wants the Coroner from the Wizard of Oz to say...
“As Coroner I must aver, I thoroughly examined her.
And she’s not only merely dead, she’s really most sincerely dead.”
I oppose the state having the power to execute someone. Even with a trial by jury they have unlimited resources to “get” someone if they want.
They got Epstein before the trial
The last rites. Not his last rights.
I am another who does not trust the government or human beings with the death penalty, unless there is no possible doubt.
If we are going to use the death penalty, I despise its medical guise these days, gurney, IV, now breathing mask. It is a perversion.
Let death come from the instruments of death, rifles and bullets by a firing squad, not from the instruments of healing.
“Project Innocence” has a mixed bag of results.
Exoneration isn’t “Innocence”.
I have no idea what that means in response to my post.
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