Alabama completes first execution by nitrogen asphyxiation

m-p{3}@lemmy.ca to News@lemmy.world – 165 points –
reuters.com
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In November 2022, Alabama officials aborted his execution by lethal injection after struggling for hours to insert an intravenous line's needle in his body.

In Smith's second and final trip to the execution chamber on Thursday, executioners restrained him in a gurney and strapped a commercial industrial-safety respirator mask to his face. A canister of pure nitrogen was attached to the mask

This doesn't sound very professional!?

Someone else mentioned in another comment here that medical professionals can’t purposely kill someone because of their oath, so I’m guessing the people administering these execution methods are literally unqualified to do them.

I'd argue that a doctor would also be unqualified, since their entire qualification revolves around not killing people.
But yeah, one major problem with the death penalty is that it is carried out by people who have no education or training in that matter.
No one goes to school to learn the trade of an executioner.

Professionals won't participate because that'd break their hippocratic oath. That just leaves schmucks like me and you to try to figure it out.

What's the professional way to kill somebody?

Hunt them for sport, with live drone footage on multiple streaming portals.

Slowly with a life sentence. Takes a bit though, whatever number of years they have left.

I don't see what's wrong.

I used to draw blood and was pretty competent when conditions were right but I was sometimes surprised by how hard was to find someone's veins. It wasn't uncommon to try several times and have the person complain that both their arms hurt from all the needling. lol

And as far as the method of execution goes with the respirator mask, it sounds very standard as far as the "exit bag" method goes. I'd even say that it's a step up from a plastic bag over one's head.

I'm just wondering why not use one of the assisted suicide nitrogen pods.

Came here to ask the same question. Are the pods more effective (aka quicker/less traumatic) or do they have the same results?

Who knows, honestly, but my guess is that besides costs and practical reasons, they didn't want to make a bigger scandal. I think their main concern is that these people are very pro-death so long as it's not under people's own terms and the pods seem like a symbol of that. How neat it would've been if they had used the pod, though!