[Mercat]

I’m not losing sleep over this but the fact is that the constitution prohibits cruel and unusual punishment. A way needs to be found to kill someone quickly and without pain. I know from watching people die that the human body does not want to die. There is a huge fight. Sleep, paralyzation, stop heart. Sounded good. It failed with the delivery system. And it doesn’t seem to me to matter if it takes 5 minutes or an hour. Put him to sleep, check his vitals. Then administer the drug that paralyzes (not real sure why that’s important) and wait and check vitals to make sure that the IV hasn’t slipped. Then do a needle directly into the heart. Done.

[IronJack]

The Constitution does not forbid painful punishment. By definition, all punishment is painful in one way or another. The constitutional prohibition is against CRUEL punishment — I.e., torture or sadistic infliction of pain for its own ends. Execution in and of itself is not painful; no one who has been successfully executed has ever complained of the pain.

[Svartalfiar]

Furman v. Georgia, 408 U.S. 238 (1972) ... In this way the United States Supreme Court "set the standard that a punishment would be cruel and unusual [,if] it was too severe for the crime, [if] it was arbitrary, if it offended society's sense of justice, or if it was not more effective than a less severe penalty."

If they just hit him with some birdshot, then buried him alive: definitely the same severity as the crime, not arbitrary - fits the crime, equally just as the crime itself, and definitely more effective than not killing him. I guess the only way you could argue this is that it's not more effective than just Nitrogen-ing him to death, which would be less severe of a punishment. A less effective deterrence though.

[heartwood]

No medicalized execution. It perverts both medicine and the death penalty.

A bullet to the brainstem is swift and painless - it is also too up close and personal for Western sensibilities.

A firing squad is swift and the pain is relatively brief. Banning cruel and unusual punishment does not mean banning any pain at all, and I suspect that fear and anticipation are worse than the pain in most cases.

[Professional Engineer]

Quickly and without pain?

Bring back the long drop.