Posted on 01/26/2024 11:23:15 AM PST by RandFan
Twenty-two minutes.
That's how long it might take you to run a few miles. To prepare a meal. To call a loved one. It's also how long it took Kenneth Eugene Smith, 58, to die.
As he convulsed and writhed in the tight black straps of his gurney, his wife Deanna began to sob. The slogan on her shirt - 'Never Alone' - reflected in the low light off the thick, dull glass viewing window that separated her in the witness room from her husband in the execution chamber.
In Alabama's William C. Holman prison on Thursday night, soon after 8pm local time, Smith became the first person in history to be put to death via nitrogen hypoxia. Smith had been on death row since 1996 - convicted for a 1988 murder-for-hire, where he was paid just $1,000 to kill Elizabeth Sennett, the wife of a preacher who ordered the hit. This was not the first time the state had tried to kill Smith.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
This creep had a wife?
He tried to hold his breath, and previously said he was afraid of dying. I wonder how much of the writhing was more about psychological fear of dying rather than physical pain.
Who in Alabama thought that smothering the condemned was a good idea?
Not gonna lose sleep over this one.
If it needs tweaking, give them a good shot of sedative first.
Has the Daily Male posted the 22 minute video so we can vote it up?
None from me, the POS got how many more years than the poor woman he murdered.....
I’m sure the “I’d pull the trigger” comments will be along shortly.
Well, I don’t see why hanging or firing squad couldn’t be options.
Both sound options
There is no right way to do the wrong thing.
Makes no sense to me.
As I understand it, if the only thing you’re breathing is 100% nitrogen, then it’s “lights out” almost instantly, and you have no idea it’s happening.
If he struggled for 22 minutes because he was trying to “hold his breath”, I’d like to know how that works. You can’t hold your breath for 22 minutes. And if you’re breathing even a little, you’re breathing 100% nitrogen.
If the prison screwed up and was pumping him with a bunch of air and a bit of nitrogen, then I guess I can see a 22 minute struggle. But could they be that incompetent?
A company I worked for had a classified lab with a cypher lock door. If I recall, there were four people working in the room and it had a line running through it that piped dry nitrogen to another part of the building. This line was leaking and there was insufficient air exchange in the lab to keep the oxygen level up. Everyone in the room succumbed. There were no symptoms to alert them. They were discovered when someone entered the room and realized everyone was on the floor. The point is, there are no symptoms whatsoever. The discomfort we feel in suffocation is the buildup of carbon dioxide. If you’re breathing it out and replacing it with oxygen you won’t know it. There’s is, or was, a suicide kit for sale on the internet that was a small cylinder of nitrogen and a Ziplock bag to go over the head. You attach the nitrogen cylinder to the bag and breathe. They guarantee no symptoms. No discomfort.
I support the death penalty. I do not support executing criminals in cruel ways. IF (and it’s a big IF) multiple witnesses to the execution who were known to support the death penalty before this execution verify the claims, then I will be willing to consider prohibiting this method, or, preferably, altering it to make the prisoner unconscious beforehand with the use of another gas.
Put him out in the desert for drone strike practice?
As bad as it was to witness it, I doubt it was any worse than watching the bond movie of the same name.
The State's supplier of lethal injection drugs has ceased to be a reliable/useful supplier, so this is the method that was selected as a replacement (other states are facing the same issue over LE drugs). It should be noted that the miscreant executed is the one selecting this option over electrocution.
did his victim have it easy dying? this guy at least knew it was coming and decades to prepare himself. yet he was afraid to die.
Ghastly and outrageous.
Not only is this government act unjust double jeopardy, but also looks like cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the 8th Amendment.
There are more details I will post in News right now
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