State plans to carry out first judicial killing in 15 years on Tuesday using technique critics call inhumane

Summary

Louisiana is set to execute Jessie Hoffman by nitrogen gas on Tuesday, becoming the second state to use this method despite banning it for euthanizing cats and dogs under state law.

Lawyers argue the method constitutes cruel punishment, citing four recent Alabama executions where prisoners showed distress signs including violent shaking and convulsions.

Louisiana veterinarian Lee Capone, who helped ban animal gassing in the state, called Hoffman’s planned execution “horrific.”

A federal judge’s temporary stay was overturned Friday by the fifth circuit court. Three major nitrogen manufacturers have blocked their products from being used in executions.

  • LastYearsIrritant@sopuli.xyzEnglish
    33·
    2 days ago

    There are a few problems with the ideal solution here tho. They want people around the victim to be able to interact with them (check vitals, comfort them, etc.) but not be in any danger.

    So you need a method that’s perfectly fine for the execution, but not the people in the same room.

    It’s actually a pretty tricky issue.

    • SirEDCaLot@lemmy.today
      1·
      12 hours ago

      Actually with nitrogen it’s not tricky at all.
      Gas chambers use toxic cyanide gas which is extremely painful to breathe in. After the execution the corpse has to be decontaminated so it does not poison mortuary workers. This is not a good system.

      The air you are breathing right now is about 80% nitrogen (and 20% oxygen). Nitrogen is all around us. You breathe it with every breath. It is harmless and non-toxic.
      Execution by nitrogen does not kill the prisoner because they are breathing nitrogen. It kills the prisoner because breathing 100% nitrogen means they are not breathing any oxygen. Our bodies need a constant flow of oxygen to survive. Remove that, even by simply displacing all the oxygen with a harmless substitute, and the person dies.

      Thus if done correctly, all you really need is a breathing mask. You can have other people right next to the prisoner during the execution and they will suffer no ill effect as long as the room is generally ventilated.

    • Plumbob@lemmy.zip
      3·
      1 day ago

      That’s precisely why nitrogen is proposed. It’s 70% of the gas you breathe anyway.

      If you take a large room, and flush a basketball sized space with 100% nitrogen, it’s no danger to anyone outside that bubble. Even if the bubble is extremely leaky, it takes a long time to change the ratio of gasses in the entire space of the room. Add an exhaust fan and a source of fresh air to the room and everyone in the room outside of the nitrogen bubble would be safe indefinitely.

      That said the death penalty is unjustifiable from any perspective. It does not promote safety morality or justice, nor is it logical even from a coldly economic point of view.