The Dawn of a New Form of Capital Punishment (Nitrogen)

Time Magazine ^ | April 2015 | Josh Sanborn

[blackdog]

I used to work in a meat plant with a kill floor operation. The animals would be on a conveyor line which moved very slowly while they were standing on it. It was routed thru a room which was about 97% CO2. In the time it took for the animal to exit the room, it was irrecoverably unconscious. It would then be hung by a rear leg with a chain hoist and it's throat would be slit and bleed out until dead. It was a very humane and efficient way of processing animals for slaughter. Better than the electric spike in the head, or the concussion round fired in the head.

They just went to sleep in the CO2 room.

[TheTimeOfMan]

Screw painless. The whole focus should not be the punishment of the offender but rather the creation of an object lesson for those attracted to the same crimes.

Raise the bar for conviction higher than it is now, but then make the punishment horrific enough that the crime rate drops by 90%.

[IronJack]

I have actually read”The Faithful Executioner.”. It is a remarkably matter-of-fact account of a rather unusual vocation.

[Jan_Sobieski]

Yea, freaked me out when I read it the first time...

[Rembrandt]

The best and most effective method would be to put the perp in an airtight chamber, then remove the air. The perp would even enjoy it as it causes euphoria. It takes very little time also. Give the perp a 6 pack and s/he probably won’t finish the first beer.

[yarddog]

I think if I were given my choice of how to be executed, I would choose the firing squad.

I saw the film of German “werewolves” executed during the Battle of the Bulge. They were tied to posts and immediately with the firing they were turned into rag dolls. Did not appear to suffer at all.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

The only botched execution in Oklahoma was of a man they forgot to execute. They simply forgot he was on the execution calendar.

So they resentenced him life.

It was a local murderer of two people in Oklahoma. We all here know his name.

[kjam22]

H2S..... it’s deadly with about two whiffs....

[The_Reader_David]

One wants a method that will not be ruled “cruel and unusual” by the local left-wing jusist. CO2 asphyxiation, unlike nitrogen asphyxiation, causes physical distress, since the body is cues to react to an overabundance of CO2 in the bloodstream by trying desperately to get more oxygen in the blood. Not so with lack of oxygen per se.

[oldbill]

How about an endless loop of Hillary cackling audio?

Nah! That would be too painful.

[GGpaX4DumpedTea]

Louisiana Department of Corrections Secretary James LeBlanc told a legislative committee last year that "nitrogen is the next big thing" and described it as a "painless way to go. <

Every time I see discussions on capital punishment and 'humane' ways to carry it out, I ask, why does it have to be painless?

[BwanaNdege]

How about CO2? It is quick and effective.

Agonizing way to go. CO2 buildup is why drowning is so painful.

I got CO2 poisoning while working in an underground pumped storage cavern. The CO2 had accumulated in the lowest point (was cleaning the turbine shaft seal at the bottom of the man-made cavern). Started feeling woozy so my co-workers got me up and out of the hole. On the ambulance ride to the hospital I remember the medic saying, "His eyes are rolling back in his head! We're losing him." Evidently, they "found" me by the time we got to the hospital. As far as I can tell, I'm still alive. :-)

BTW, no pain at all.

JFWIW.

[Popman]

We put down animals quickly and humanly all the time...

I don’t see why the same methods can’t be applied...

[JohnBovenmyer]

1 atm N2 sounds straightforward for this and relatively cheap, although not as cheap as a noose, a bullet, the guillotine, or the chair. Just be careful not to off the good guys. Lock perp alone in room with big screen tv playing his choice and a chair. Flood room with N2 without warning. Vent it safely after 10 minutes. No attendants needed, just gas concentration sensors.

Now, if I can believe Tom Clancy and his 'John Clark,' hyperbaric N2, with variable pressure and enough added O2 to sustain life, is much less humane. Certainly 'the bends' is real and can cause painful chronic damage. I just don't know whether it can be induced as brutally as Clancy wrote it for a deserving perp. I forget in which of his books, this occurred, but the scene was memorable.

[CrazyIvan]

Certainly ‘the bends’ is real and can cause painful chronic damage. I just don't know whether it can be induced as brutally as Clancy wrote it for a deserving perp. I forget in which of his books, this occurred, but the scene was memorable.

I don't either but my scuba instructor was an old UDT diver who had been cutting a path under a boat to pass a cable through to raise it when it rolled over on him trapping him at 140’ in a hard had rig for several hours. This was in the 60s when the treatment was not so sophisticated. He told us the story as a precautionary tale against ever getting bent and I could tell that it was a horrific memory.

[meatloaf]

I’ll vote for that if they do the executions as part of the Super Bowl halftime show.

[William Tell]

A friend tells a story about a man who had reason to enter a chamber which required wearing a breathing mask.

The man passed out twice and had to be twice rescued from the chamber before it was realized that the breathing mask had been plugged into a nitrogen line rather then an air line.

I've read that the typical extremely unpleasant effects of asphyxiation come about because of a build-up of carbon dioxide in the blood and not a lack of oxygen.

[bakeneko]

Duct tape mouth, nose, ears, eyes and privates.

Insert hose from NO (or CO) canister into ass.

By committing their crimes they wanted to be big men in life, well they can be BIG men in death.

Inmate crew to scrape the residue off the walls. Maybe they will grow a clue.

[PLMerite]

"No to firing squads."

"They have a certain amount of romanticism attached to them."

Not that much.

[TexasFreeper2009]

It’s either humane or it’s not.

If it’s humane to use that method on innocent animals, then it should be humane enough to use to murderous scum humans.