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Kenneth Smith ‘struggled for life’ for 22 minutes in Alabama nitrogen gas execution: Updates
(www.independent.co.uk)
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this post was submitted on 26 Jan 2024
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I don't support capital punishment.
But hypoxia in humans is well studied. Unless they were using monumental stupid gas like CO2 (which triggers your breathing reflex) then the problem wasn't the method, in principle.
I wouldn't put it past a execution supporter to fuck it up somehow, though.
This was discussed in another thread. Apparently they did not scrub the CO2 he expelled (which presumably under high anxiety and adrenaline would be way higher) and he simply rebreathed that CO2 back in, mixed with the nitrogen.
For those unaware, CO2 buildup in our blood is what triggers our brainstem to go crazy and gasp for air and convulse and generally have that terrible sense of asphyxiation/drowning. Lack of oxygen does not.
All they needed was an open circuit constantly flowing nitrogen into a breathing mask or a bag over his head. It's so simple. I'm not surprised but incredibly disappointed they fucked it up.
With the kind of money I'm sure they spent, they could have just made a big airtight rubber room, flushed it with nitrogen, and just put him in for 10 minutes.
So,.like
was this guy in a relatively large volume chamber/booth and they just trickled the N2 gas in?
If there was enough volume, it could take a long time for the O2 levels to get low enough for him to pass out... BUT does a human body produce enough CO2 to fill that space to the point of triggering the suffocation response? Seems unlikely...
OR did they just strap a rebreather mask to his face and turn on a few l/min?
Were any specifics about the actual setup published?
I don't have any details about the setup but a CO2 concentration of 0.3% would be noticeable. Humans are extremely sensitive to CO2 so it really doesn't take that much to be a problem.
But if he was in something the size of a phone booth (does America have them) then the volume probably is small enough that the CO2 concentration would add up. A breather mask would actually have been better because it would have pulled the CO2 out (they are designed for diving), if they're not going to pull the CO2 out then they need to increase the volume to something the size of a porta cabin.
Hemlock Society recommends an oven roaster bag (like for turkeys) and a bottle of inert gas (usually helium is easiest to get) and just flow enough in to keep the inert atmosphere in the bag "fresh"
Also, there is 'gas stunning' which is used in Europe for slaughter. There are some practices that use CO2 for this, but at a nearly 100% level it is pretty instantaneous, much like HS2 -- which you can't even smell at high concentration, because you're dead already.
Point, there is some state of the art around using gas to kill; it's not a brand new concept.
Many people do believe it was botched, because the dude struggled for almost 30 minutes. Nobody can stay awake without oxygen for that long under normal circumstances. Hell, the world record for breath holding is ~25 minutes. So he almost certainly had oxygen bleeding in from somewhere, which prolonged his death. Because we all know this dude wasn’t on a world record attempt as a lifelong free diver with years of experience and training.