# 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:** 9
### Author:  [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)
#### Post date: [January 25, 2024, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alabama-retries-failed-execution-with-untried-method-nitrogen/996572/161 "2024-01-25T23:51:32Z")
> [@Magiver](#):
>
> It does severely limit committing more murders.
My son works in a prison with a death row. Convicts awaiting the death penalty have no reason not to kill guards or other prisoners. My son is vehemently against the death penalty.
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### Author:  [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)
#### Post date: [January 25, 2024, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alabama-retries-failed-execution-with-untried-method-nitrogen/996572/162 "2024-01-25T23:58:50Z")
> [@kayaker](#):
>
> Convicts awaiting the death penalty have no reason not to kill guards or other prisoners
The power of “nothing left to lose”.
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### Author:  [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)
#### Post date: [January 25, 2024, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alabama-retries-failed-execution-with-untried-method-nitrogen/996572/163 "2024-01-25T23:59:02Z")
> [@kayaker](#):
>
> My son works in a prison with a death row. Convicts awaiting the death penalty have no reason not to kill guards or other prisoners. My son is vehemently against the death penalty.
Again, this thread is not about whether or not you approve of the death penalty. It’s about using nitrogen (gas) as a method of execution.
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### Author:  [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)
#### Post date: [January 26, 2024, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alabama-retries-failed-execution-with-untried-method-nitrogen/996572/164 "2024-01-26T00:10:08Z")
It’s the pit. Bugger off.
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### Author:  [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)
#### Post date: [January 26, 2024, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alabama-retries-failed-execution-with-untried-method-nitrogen/996572/165 "2024-01-26T00:53:31Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#):
>
> 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.
That would be absolute torture, because every morning you would be wondering if this is the one. It’s the sword of Damocles; you never know when it will drop. How could anyone think that through for even a moment and think it was painless? :shudder:
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### Author:  [@excavating\_for\_a\_mind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/excavating_for_a_mind)
#### Post date: [January 26, 2024, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alabama-retries-failed-execution-with-untried-method-nitrogen/996572/166 "2024-01-26T01:04:45Z")
> [@gnoitall](#):
>
> The power of “nothing left to lose”.
Known in some circles as “Freedom!”
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### Author:  [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)
#### Post date: [January 26, 2024, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alabama-retries-failed-execution-with-untried-method-nitrogen/996572/167 "2024-01-26T01:09:55Z")
> [@TruCelt](#):
>
> How could anyone think that through for even a moment and think it was painless?
I suspect it was meant to be mental torture.
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### Author:  [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)
#### Post date: [January 26, 2024, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alabama-retries-failed-execution-with-untried-method-nitrogen/996572/168 "2024-01-26T01:47:41Z")
So you suspect that you agree.
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### Author:  [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)
#### Post date: [January 26, 2024, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alabama-retries-failed-execution-with-untried-method-nitrogen/996572/169 "2024-01-26T02:15:03Z")
I think the Russkies believe it is cheap, they charge the relatives for the cartridges. But I think the deal is that no one knows that is how they execute criminals. Anyone who hears the noise is told that Ivan attacked the guard or some other excuse. A politburo car backfired.
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### Author:  [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)
#### Post date: [January 26, 2024, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alabama-retries-failed-execution-with-untried-method-nitrogen/996572/170 "2024-01-26T02:48:04Z")
Per the AP, it is done.
> **[Alabama executes a man with nitrogen gas, the first time the new method has...](https://apnews.com/article/nitrogen-execution-death-penalty-alabama-699896815486f019f804a8afb7032900)**
>
> Kenneth Eugene Smith, a 58-year-old convicted killer is scheduled to be executed at a south Alabama prison.
> The execution took about 22 minutes, and Smith appeared to remain conscious for several minutes. For at least two minutes, he appeared to shake and writhe on the gurney, sometimes pulling against the restraints. That was followed by several minutes of heavy breathing, until breathing was no longer perceptible.
> In a final statement, Smith said: “Tonight Alabama causes humanity to take a step backwards. … I’m leaving with love, peace and light.”
> He made the “I love you sign” with his hands toward family members who were witnesses. “Thank you for supporting me. Love, love all of you,” Smith said.
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### Author:  [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)
#### Post date: [January 26, 2024, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alabama-retries-failed-execution-with-untried-method-nitrogen/996572/171 "2024-01-26T02:53:27Z")
So did they screw up the process, or has the method’s supposedly quick, painless effectiveness been oversold?
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### Author:  [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)
#### Post date: [January 26, 2024, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alabama-retries-failed-execution-with-untried-method-nitrogen/996572/172 "2024-01-26T03:01:49Z")
> [@EddyTeddyFreddy](#):
>
> quick, painless effective
I guess one of those
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### Author:  [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)
#### Post date: [January 26, 2024, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alabama-retries-failed-execution-with-untried-method-nitrogen/996572/173 "2024-01-26T03:04:03Z")
Read the post right before yours.
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### Author:  [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)
#### Post date: [January 26, 2024, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alabama-retries-failed-execution-with-untried-method-nitrogen/996572/174 "2024-01-26T03:04:35Z")
Where’s the indication that it wasn’t both quick and painless? It was expected to take several minutes. Pulling on the restraints seems like an expected reaction for someone about to die. He might have been holding his breath.
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### Author:  [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)
#### Post date: [January 26, 2024, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alabama-retries-failed-execution-with-untried-method-nitrogen/996572/175 "2024-01-26T03:09:24Z")
So Alabama uses a _more_ humane method that Smith _himself requested,_ and Smith says “Today Alabama caused humanity to take a step backwards…” - okay…
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### Author:  [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)
#### Post date: [January 26, 2024, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alabama-retries-failed-execution-with-untried-method-nitrogen/996572/176 "2024-01-26T03:09:35Z")
> [@hajario](#):
>
> Per the AP, it is done.
Now that he’s been executed, when does the victim come back to life?
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### Author:  [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)
#### Post date: [January 26, 2024, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alabama-retries-failed-execution-with-untried-method-nitrogen/996572/177 "2024-01-26T03:10:13Z")
I did, hence my comment. Why did it go so wrong? Did the executioner(s) fumble the process? Or has the method been oversold, even lied about? The article posted doesn’t provide any explanation for what happened.
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### Author:  [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)
#### Post date: [January 26, 2024, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alabama-retries-failed-execution-with-untried-method-nitrogen/996572/178 "2024-01-26T03:51:22Z")
Years ago at my workplace, a maintenance technician put his face in an unventilated chamber that was filled with nitrogen to inhibit combustion. His buddies teased him for being so hung over that he’d passed out at work, but for him it was a blank space in his life between opening the hatch and waking up on the floor. We did an investigation and tightened up our training and protocols.
Some time later a a few miles away, [six chicken-plant employees died](https://www.osha.gov/news/newsreleases/national/07232021) when a refrigeration system leaked nitrogen. Like a lot of confined space catastrophic incidents, the multiple deaths occurred when people run in to rescue the initial victim. [Here’s another example with more science from a 2005 incident.](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=f2ItJe2Incs)
There’s a video I couldn’t find, which we used in new-hire training, of an experiment where a pig was shown a clear plexiglass bin filled with apples and flooded with CO2. He went in for the apples, but got one whiff of the gas and he was out of there. Another pig was brought in, but along with the apples, the bin was flooded with nitrogen. The pig passed out, tumbled out of the bin into fresh air; but this time, after he came around and saw the apples, went right back in.
None of these people or pigs knew what they were experiencing, and so they showed no distress. The condemned, unless they’re brain-damaged like [Ricky Ray Rector](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ricky_Ray_Rector) (who was saving the pie from his last meal “for after,”) will always undergo psychological torture. That might explain Mr. Smith pulling at the restraints.
If torture is the whole point, as sanitary was we can make it as we wash our hands of complicity, how about the torture of admittedly truly horrible criminals stewing in their own juices with no hope of release, for years and years?
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### Author:  [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)
#### Post date: [January 26, 2024, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alabama-retries-failed-execution-with-untried-method-nitrogen/996572/179 "2024-01-26T04:28:03Z")
> [@Slithy\_Tove](#):
>
> If torture is the whole point, as sanitary was we can make it as we wash our hands of complicity, how about the torture of admittedly truly horrible criminals stewing in their own juices with no hope of release, for years and years?
If punishment is the whole point, then why not let them sit in a cell and think about what they’ve done? If they’re executed, they cease to exist. Punishment over.
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### Author:  [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)
#### Post date: [January 26, 2024, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alabama-retries-failed-execution-with-untried-method-nitrogen/996572/180 "2024-01-26T04:31:35Z")
Works for me. Edmund Kemper has to spend the rest of his life trapped in a cell with Edmund Kemper, and pretty much nobody else. That’s gotta suck.
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