Kenneth Smith ‘struggled for life’ for 22 minutes in nitrogen gas execution: Updates
www.independent.co.uk
Witness Reverend Jeff Hood told reporters he saw a man ‘struggling for their life’ for 22 minutes as Smith became the first US death row inmate executed by nitrogen asphyxia

“Kenny just began to gasp for air repeatedly and the execution took about 25 minutes total.”

Pretty compassionate way to kill a person.

Once again, the Law in the south is brutal.

  • assembly@lemmy.world
    2421·
    10 months ago

    As someone who gets nitrogen at the dentist office with a mask I have a theory that it was just him consciously fighting it. It’s positive pressure nitrogen that you just breath in at normal breath rate. If you breath really hard you can displace the nitrogen and suck in some regular air. It sounds like he fought it which caused it to take longer. It is the standard human reaction to fight against one’s own death and I’m guessing he thought that if they held out long enough they would stop. If they are going to use a mask like that as opposed to a hood or chamber they really should sedate the person first.

    • TheChurn@kbin.social
      391·
      10 months ago

      You do not get ‘nitrogen’ at the dentist’s office.

      You are given a solution of normal air with a small amount of nitrous oxide (N2O) to relax you. You are never deprived of oxygen, since the dentist isn’t trying to asphyxiate you.

    • JimboDHimbo@lemmy.ca
      181·
      10 months ago

      …this is hilarious. The dentist gives you nitrous oxide (laughing gas), not straight up nitrogen.

      • FaceDeer@kbin.social
        11·
        10 months ago

        The rest of the comment is perfectly valid, though. If I have a mask on my face and I know that it’s feeding me a gas that will kill me, I’d do everything I could to dislodge it and hold my breath and whatnot that I could. A far better approach would have been to fill the chamber with nitrogen, ideally without any sort of obvious hissing noise or other tell.

        And a far far better approach would have been to not kill the guy in the first place, but I guess there’s no stopping that particular bloodlust right now.

    • snooggums@kbin.social
      105·
      10 months ago

      As someone who gets nitrogen at the dentist office with a mask I have a theory that it was just him consciously fighting it.

      No shit Sherlock. Someone who likes having their breathing restricted during sexual escapades would also fight it and suffer if someone was actively trying to kill them.

    • june@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      10 months ago

      If this is the case I wonder if it was his attempt to it fail like the first attempt. After that he may have had a good case to go life without parole rather than face another attempt at execution.

    • some_guy@lemmy.sdf.orgOP
      11·
      10 months ago

      Because the nitrogen that you and I get at the dentist is enough to kill us… That’s fucking stupid.