# Alabama retries failed execution with untried method (nitrogen)
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alabama-retries-failed-execution-with-untried-method-nitrogen/996572
**Category:** The BBQ Pit
**Created:** [January 24, 2024, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alabama-retries-failed-execution-with-untried-method-nitrogen/996572 "2024-01-24T01:40:59Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)
#### Post date: [January 24, 2024, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alabama-retries-failed-execution-with-untried-method-nitrogen/996572/1 "2024-01-24T01:40:59Z")
> **[Alabama calls nitrogen execution method painless and humane, but critics are...](https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/2024/01/23/alabama-nitrogen-execution-death-penalty/195b0eea-b9b1-11ee-b176-fe5fd794e716_story.html)**
>
> Alabama intends to put a man to death with nitrogen gas this week unless stopped by the courts
Egad.
I know the topic has come up a time or three in the boards. I spotted a thread from about 5 years back where Oklahoma was going to name that their primary method. They have not actually done so. Mississippi is supposedly also considering this method.
Fuckers.
The murderer is a piece of shit. Not arguing that.But they botched the first attempt (which to my mind should for sure be a “get out of death row free” card). So instead they are going to try a method that has NEVER BEEN USED.
Among other concerns, the method will involve a mask on the inmate. Masks leak - either endangering the observers, or risking leaking regular air into the mask, meaning it wouldn’t work.
Disclaimer: I am 100% opposed to the death penalty for so many reasons.
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### Author:  [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)
#### Post date: [January 24, 2024, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alabama-retries-failed-execution-with-untried-method-nitrogen/996572/2 "2024-01-24T01:47:52Z")
Article paywalled.
IF we are going to have the death penalty, do we not want it as humane (You might argue that’s a contradiction. I do not) as possible? As for “never been used”, doesn’t any new method need a first time?
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### Author:  [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)
#### Post date: [January 24, 2024, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alabama-retries-failed-execution-with-untried-method-nitrogen/996572/3 "2024-01-24T01:50:36Z")
Sorry about the paywall, I wasn’t signed in. This link ought to work. If not, there are a lot of articles if you google it.
> **[Alabama calls nitrogen execution method painless and humane, but critics are...](https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/2024/01/23/alabama-nitrogen-execution-death-penalty/195b0eea-b9b1-11ee-b176-fe5fd794e716_story.html?pwapi_token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJyZWFzb24iOiJnaWZ0IiwibmJmIjoxNzA1OTg2MDAwLCJpc3MiOiJzdWJzY3JpcHRpb25zIiwiZXhwIjoxNzA3MzY4Mzk5LCJpYXQiOjE3MDU5ODYwMDAsImp0aSI6ImI3NWU0MDI1LTU5NDEtNGJlZC1hNDA2LTZkZTA4NTI1M2NjNyIsInVybCI6Imh0dHBzOi8vd3d3Lndhc2hpbmd0b25wb3N0LmNvbS9uYXRpb25hbC8yMDI0LzAxLzIzL2FsYWJhbWEtbml0cm9nZW4tZXhlY3V0aW9uLWRlYXRoLXBlbmFsdHkvMTk1YjBlZWEtYjliMS0xMWVlLWIxNzYtZmU1ZmQ3OTRlNzE2X3N0b3J5Lmh0bWwifQ.vt7VT1ckM4RzD0J1TZpPfkegBtXDeY8iiNK9YOhiKW4&itid=gfta)**
>
> Alabama intends to put a man to death with nitrogen gas this week unless stopped by the courts
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### Author:  [@HoneyBadgerDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HoneyBadgerDC)
#### Post date: [January 24, 2024, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alabama-retries-failed-execution-with-untried-method-nitrogen/996572/4 "2024-01-24T02:14:36Z")
As long as you had slight positive pressure inside the mask air would not leak in. I have been overcome by nitrogen and it was not instant, I felt myself getting lightheaded and my vision seemed to go, I stepped out of the area quickly, I know in another 10 or 15 seconds I would have passed out. There was most likely quite a bit of oxygen still in the air as I was just dealing with a leaking bottle in a semi enclosed place. I would say it is painless and quick.
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### Author:  [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)
#### Post date: [January 24, 2024, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alabama-retries-failed-execution-with-untried-method-nitrogen/996572/5 "2024-01-24T02:19:31Z")
Of course you know you just inhaled 78% nitrogen as you read this sentence, right?
Its effects in lethal concentrations are well-documented from the several deaths annually in industrial accidents.
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### Author:  [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)
#### Post date: [January 24, 2024, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alabama-retries-failed-execution-with-untried-method-nitrogen/996572/6 "2024-01-24T02:21:27Z")
I’m absolutely against capital punishment. This method, AFAICT, was not actually chosen because of its efficacy, but rather because it’s the best the PTB in Alabama can figure out how to get around the obstacles against their cruelty. This method has not been tried, AFAIK, on humans ever before now, but it has been used on other animals.
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### Author:  [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)
#### Post date: [January 24, 2024, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alabama-retries-failed-execution-with-untried-method-nitrogen/996572/7 "2024-01-24T02:32:30Z")
That’s what I suspect. Many death-penalty opponents actually **want** capital punishment to be painful, so that they have more hay they can make about it being “inhumane.”
(I’m not saying the OP or anyone else in this thread is that way. But I’ve known quite a few death penalty opponents who give me that vibe.)
> [@Mama\_Zappa](#):
>
> So instead they are going to try a method that has NEVER BEEN USED.
Well, after this time, it will have been used. So that objection will go away.
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### Author:  [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)
#### Post date: [January 24, 2024, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alabama-retries-failed-execution-with-untried-method-nitrogen/996572/8 "2024-01-24T02:45:13Z")
> [@Velocity](#):
>
> Many death-penalty opponents actually **want** capital punishment to be painful, so that they have more hay they can make about it being “inhumane.”
Can you name any prominent ones?
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### Author:  [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)
#### Post date: [January 24, 2024, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alabama-retries-failed-execution-with-untried-method-nitrogen/996572/9 "2024-01-24T02:49:43Z")
People on Reddit are not exactly prominent, of course. But the sentiment seems fairly widespread from what I’ve observed of threads there. I’ve known some to argue that the more execution looks humane and sterilized, the more it allows society to make peace with what they want to be viewed as a fundamentally violent act.
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [January 24, 2024, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alabama-retries-failed-execution-with-untried-method-nitrogen/996572/10 "2024-01-24T02:50:50Z")
Some death penalty opponents want it to be gruesome, but that’s not the same thing as painful. A gun directly to the head is painless, but leaves a lot of gore, and makes the executioners realize, on a gut level, that what they’re doing is killing a person.
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### Author:  [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)
#### Post date: [January 24, 2024, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alabama-retries-failed-execution-with-untried-method-nitrogen/996572/11 "2024-01-24T03:04:28Z")
so…not one prominent death penalty opponent? How about a website pushing this idea?
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### Author:  [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)
#### Post date: [January 24, 2024, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alabama-retries-failed-execution-with-untried-method-nitrogen/996572/12 "2024-01-24T03:14:22Z")
I’ve read then the Russian method is that a guard escorts you to breakfast, as he has always done, and shoot you in the back of the head. I consider that may not be cruel, if you never suffer.
I’m against the death penalty. Some innocent people have be executed. Mrs. Plant may be sitting in a chair on the deck and be hit by a meteorite. Someone may say I tipped a big rock over on her after we had a fight about my buying another aquarium. In other words, it might happen to me.
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### Author:  [@Great\_Antibob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Antibob)
#### Post date: [January 24, 2024, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alabama-retries-failed-execution-with-untried-method-nitrogen/996572/13 "2024-01-24T03:49:18Z")
It’s the mask that gets me.
There are proponents of nitrogen for euthanasia that advocate for a sealed room or capsule or large hood where the risks can be contained.
The NYTimes (gift link below) has an article with some comments from one Doctor who makes the same case against masks for nitrogen execution because they can fail if they aren’t well fitted.
It boggles the mind that the state of Alabama decides to use a prisoner as a literal test animal when there are apparently methods that have been tested with greater surety of properly working. And where the condemned has expressed an interest, if it can’t be avoided, to have it work properly rather than go through what he did last year when they jabbed him multiple times before quitting.
> **[After a Botched Execution, Alabama Is Trying an Untested Method](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/23/us/nitrogen-execution-alabama-kenneth-smith.html?unlocked_article_code=1.QE0.wPuD.U179OkwiVdI9&smid=url-share)**
>
> The state plans to carry out the first U.S. execution via nitrogen hypoxia with Kenneth Smith, who survived an earlier attempt to execute him by lethal injection.
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### Author:  [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)
#### Post date: [January 24, 2024, 6:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alabama-retries-failed-execution-with-untried-method-nitrogen/996572/14 "2024-01-24T06:38:52Z")
Ah - that was the original article I read.
Ignoring the “experimenting on prisoners” aspect, the fact that in the original trial, the JUDGE OVERRULED THE JURY TO IMPOSE THE DEATH PENALTY.
Alabama.
That says so very, very much.
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### Author:  [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)
#### Post date: [January 24, 2024, 6:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alabama-retries-failed-execution-with-untried-method-nitrogen/996572/15 "2024-01-24T06:43:06Z")
> [@Great\_Antibob](#):
>
> It boggles the mind that the state of Alabama decides to use a prisoner as a literal test animal when there are apparently methods that have been tested with greater surety of properly working.
Perhaps his lawyers shouldn’t have suggested executing him that way, then.
> [@](#):
>
> State officials argue that death by nitrogen hypoxia is painless because it quickly causes a person to lose consciousness. They note that Mr. Smith’s lawyers have themselves identified nitrogen hypoxia as preferable to Alabama’s troubled administration of lethal injection.
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### Author:  [@nelliebly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nelliebly)
#### Post date: [January 24, 2024, 7:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alabama-retries-failed-execution-with-untried-method-nitrogen/996572/16 "2024-01-24T07:07:58Z")
His lawyers didn’t suggest executing him this way. They merely said it would be preferable to the botched attempts Alabama has had, a very low bar.
I find this execution particularly troubling. When nitrogen has been used in assisted suicides, it has not been done using a mask. The expert who’s had quite a bit of experience wth assisted suicide said in the article that he’s nervous for the condemned man.
> “What he would’ve liked to hear from me,” Dr. Nitschke said, “was that this was going to work well.” But, he said, he did not feel that he could promise Mr. Smith as much, instead viewing Alabama’s protocols as a “quick and nasty” attempt at nitrogen hypoxia that ignores the potential dangers of vomiting and air leakage.
Inhaling one’s own vomit and choking to death does not sound like a humane means of execution.
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### Author:  [@Eonwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eonwe)
#### Post date: [January 24, 2024, 7:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alabama-retries-failed-execution-with-untried-method-nitrogen/996572/17 "2024-01-24T07:12:11Z")
> [@Velocity](#):
>
> what they want to be viewed as a fundamentally violent act.
… what is a fundamentally violent act.
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### Author:  [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)
#### Post date: [January 24, 2024, 7:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alabama-retries-failed-execution-with-untried-method-nitrogen/996572/18 "2024-01-24T07:25:08Z")
> [@nelliebly](#):
>
> Inhaling one’s own vomit and choking to death does not sound like a humane means of execution.
Personally, I’d be fine with bringing back the guillotine. Quick, painless, slim to no chance of failure.
Not that a man who took $1,000 to whack an innocent woman deserves humane treatment.
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### Author:  [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)
#### Post date: [January 24, 2024, 7:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alabama-retries-failed-execution-with-untried-method-nitrogen/996572/19 "2024-01-24T07:33:22Z")
Should we be forced to be _in_humane in how we deal with this situation?
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### Author:  [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)
#### Post date: [January 24, 2024, 7:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alabama-retries-failed-execution-with-untried-method-nitrogen/996572/20 "2024-01-24T07:37:27Z")
No.
We can be better than the person we’re trying to punish.
The timing is ridiculous, too. The murder was committed THIRTY FIVE YEARS AGO.
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