I think the problem with a sarco pod, in addition to what was mentioned above, is that your spiritual advisor, or whatever, can’t be there with you.
That can’t be right.
Gas chambers are still legal to use for execution in several states. They haven’t used nitrogen yet (I think they preferred cyanide in the past?) but there’s nothing to preclude them from doing so.
ETA: the real issue appears to be the same one they had in Alabama - how do you reliably test such procedures? The old gas chambers ‘worked’ but in many cases, the deaths by cyanide were clearly tortuous. Properly done, that shouldn’t be the case for nitrogen but ‘properly’ is hard to do without live tests, which in the case of preparing for executions is a bit hard to manage. In Alabama, it looks like they just rolled the dice and assumed it would work the way they hoped.
To pick the proper execution method we need to first decide what our criteria for a success are.
Do we want to prevent physical suffering in the instant of execution?
Do we want to prevent psychological distress in the buildup to and anticipation of the actual execution?
Do we want to create the appearance of a calm and clinical procedure for viewers?
These goals can conflict with one another. A high caliber bullet to the back of the head at a random, unanticipated moment is probably the as good as you can get when it comes to preventing suffering, either physical or mental. But it doesn’t feel clinical at all, and it leaves a big mess to clean up.
IVs or gas are great when it comes to neatly killing someone while leaving all their innards inside, but if the person doesn’t want to die, it won’t be a neat and clinical process.
We should decide what actually matters to us when it comes to executions, and tailor our method to our goal. (Or, as I would personally suggest, give up entirely, because the benefits of having a death penalty in place are pretty questionable. But that’s a different topic.)
I bet those states would lose in court if they tried to use the gas chamber on death row inmates. In 2022, SCOTUS ruled that inmates can have the touch of clergy during execution:
That was one case in which there was no physical reason or safety concern it could not happen - hence why they said it was a ‘reasonable’ accommodation (setting aside how ‘reasonable’ people consider executions in the first place).
So, it does not appear to be a hard legal requirement and there is a decades long history of gas chamber use where most assuredly, nobody else was in the chamber while gas was administered.
IANAL but I hazard a guess that if there were legitimate safety concerns, they would have ruled that continuous physical contact by a clergyman was not a reasonable accommodation, unlike the case of a lethal injection.
If they truly have faith, they can!
Don’t look at me.
maybe a couple of the ol’ folks could … (clears throat)
… well…
… you know