cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/14097254
Smith’s execution by “nitrogen hypoxia” took around 22 minutes, according to media witnesses, who were led into a viewing room at the William C Holman correctional facility in Atmore shortly before 8 pm local time.
After the nitrogen gas began flowing, Smith convulsed on the gurney for several minutes. The state had previously said the nitrogen gas would cause Smith to lose consciousness in seconds and die within minutes, according to the Associated Press.
“I’ve been to four previous executions and I’ve never seen a condemned inmate thrash in the way that Kenneth Smith reacted to the nitrogen gas,” Lee Hedgepeth, a journalist who witnessed the execution, told the BBC’s Newsday programme.
Oh shit. Yeah, that’s a real problem. And yeah, if that’s true that’s totally asinine; they eliminated the one obvious advantage that this method has over all others when it would have been trivial to make sure it was a non-issue.
Maybe deliberately inflicting suffering was a design goal they just couldn’t let go of. 😥
Edit: After looking over some of the reasons people are saying he was suffering, I don’t see much reason to think so or think CO2 was recirculating. I’m sure it was horrible knowing that he was going to die. I’m against the death penalty in general, and I think a lot of people are opposed to this just because it’s horrible to execute someone however you do it. But I’m pretty convinced that there’s no real reason to think he suffered physically while he was dying.