That’s what Dr. Kevorkian used.
Problem is, when you have someone not cooperating, the gas mask is dangerous. You run the risk of leaks if they struggle. So you are back to the gas chamber.
Well, hell.
Let’s go for life in prison without cable TV.
I think death by murder can be pretty unpleasant too. I’d be all in favor of lining them up and shooting them. And don’t let them–the prisoners–know their executions are being recorded and thus avoid any last minute histrionics.:mad:
!!
How would they not know? Are these recording going to supersecret never-to-be-released-to-the-public things, or what? If not, then it will be public knowledge, and the fact that the government is in the business of making snuff films is going to make things much worse.
Then make it worth their while, financially. I’m sure there are anesthesiologists who are tired of the profession and would give it up to become executioners. What is the state willing to pay?
Cruel and unusual.
I don’t know what anesthesiologists make, but I know what they charge.
I can’t see them making the same amount of money unless they were doing dozens of executions a month, or we were paying them tens of thousands per execution.
Neither is a road I would heartily endorse.
If they take a job as executioner, they would effectively end their careers. To make it worth their while, financially, you’ have to pay a lump sum equivalent to 10 to 20 years salary.
Do you know how much an anesthesiologist makes?
Gonna be pretty expensive.
This is just another part of the political problem. It’s not the same as having medical personnel actually kill the condemned, but it’s still going to cause problems. An anesthesiologist would be relieving the anguish of someone about to be executed yet at the same time participating in a procedure they and there colleagues would consider wrong in the first place. There is no single piece of this puzzle missing to fill in, there’s just no set of pieces that put together form a clear picture.
Certainly a simple mask is not suitable, even for nitrogen there are dangers. Indeed, a sealed chamber would be necessary, it’s just not necessary to use cyanide gas or other substances that would cause great suffering.
It really wouldn’t matter if you switched to certified anesthesiologists, unless you changed the law to allow for judgment calls. The main advantage to having a person who knows what they are doing is having someone who can adapt the procedure to the patient, and right now the laws are written so that the procedure is identical every time. That’s actually one of the reasons it can go wrong-- it ought to be tailored to the “patient,” but then, we get into the realm of calling them patients, requiring doctors, and that’s not what people want.
I think really the problem is that lethal injection satisfies no one. People who support the death penalty don’t really want it to be clean and painless, and people who don’t support aren’t mollified by the idea that the prisoner doesn’t suffer. So no one is really committed to fixing the problems with it.
Not to mention that drug companies don’t want to support it, and they ought to have the right not to, IMO.
Apparently the gas chamber was hard on the witnesses. Unlike hanging or electrocution, you can’t put a mask over the prisoner’s face. It’s never been used much. Plus, venting it afterwards is difficult.
I had read once that the Russian (Soviet?) execution method was simple. the condemned was kept on death row. Each day, they come out of their cell, walk down the corridor to whatever else they do in jail - common room, food, whatever. One random day, they never know when, they will be shot in the back of the head from a hidden sniper as they walk down that corridor.
I presume the corridors are easy to hose down.
Yeah, but that wasn’t the condemned. That was the public.
Not quite accurate. It’s true that the condemned man would not be told in advance the date and time of his execution. No concealed sniper, though. He would be taken to the execution room and shot in the head with a handgun.
This topic has come up many times before.
One problem not discussed as to humans vs. animals is that very few animals being put down have spent years injecting themselves with all sorts of drugs. Drugs which damage veins needed for lethal injection. Drugs which the prisoner may have developed great tolerance for and which might carry over into tolerance for the lethal injection drugs.
The whole “We sent Serial Killer Joe to a nice farm upstate.” mentality associated with lethal injection is deplorable. It is frequently botched and no wonder a lot of companies don’t want to be associated with it.
Bullets, hanging, etc. are more humane (umm, I mean, err …). Gas chambers and electric chairs are less humane. If you want the job done quickly with as little likelihood of a botch job, forget lethal injection. Just forget it.
Not sure why; a bag made of woven material would let the gas through just fine.
Barbara Grahamwas allowed to wear a blindfold in the gas chamber.
Recently Alabama (or some other state) tried to legalize execution by nitrogen asphyxiation.
It was opposed by a lawmaker on the grounds that “It’s never been done before.”
Well, sure, of course - everything by definition has never been done before, prior to being done for the first time. There was a time when lethal injection, electrocution, hanging, firing squad, etc. had all “never been done before.” Catch-22 logic.
If I found myself sentenced to death and allowed to choose my method of execution, I’d choose to be given 10 mg Xanax, followed by high dose Bromptons Cocktail, followed ~20 minutes later by a penetrating captive bolt to my forehead (with a cattle stunner) and immediae exanguination. Short, sweet, complete.
I should like to be sentenced to die of Old Age.