Since May is evidently Capital Punishment Month, what about suffocation as a method of execution, assuming that execution is necessary? Recycle an old gas chamber and strap in the condemned, then gradually and as silently as possible, evacuate the air level to something approximating 50,000 feet altitude. From what I’ve heard, the hypoxia often has people dropping off without even being aware of it, hence the risk to pilots and mountain climbers and such. Further, since no poisons or bullets or current or other invasive and destructive influences are being injected, in theory a last-minute reprieve could still work for up to four minutes or so.
And if the reprieve takes longer than four minutes and the condemned is revived with brain damage, Texas at least won’t have a problem executing him again.
Carbon monoxide has the same effect. It’s a little more dangerous for the executioners because of the possibility of leakage, but there’s no chance of an implosion in the chamber.
Air pressure nitrogen is good; you don’t even perceive the lack of oxygen. No gasping, no suffering. Workmen have died in Nitrogen environments. They just fall over unconscious, without any sign of distress at all.
Well, maybe nitrogen replacement is indeed an improvement over altitude-simulation. I was thinking low air pressure might cause nosebleeds and I gather the goal is to cause as little damage as possible to the condemned aside from, y’know, make-go-dead.
In any case, it’s a job that anyone reasonably handy with machines can manage - running air pumps and whatnot. No need for medical-ish skills like inserting IVs and such.
The initial symptoms of acute carbon monoxide poisoning include headache, nausea, malaise, and fatigue.[17] These symptoms are often mistaken for a virus such as influenza or other illnesses such as food poisoning or gastroenteritis.[18] Headache is the most common symptom of acute carbon monoxide poisoning; it is often described as dull, frontal, and continuous.[19] Increasing exposure produces cardiac abnormalities including fast heart rate, low blood pressure, and cardiac arrhythmia;[20][21] central nervous system symptoms include delirium, hallucinations, dizziness, unsteady gait, confusion, seizures, central nervous system depression, unconsciousness, respiratory arrest, and death.[22][23] Less common symptoms of acute carbon monoxide poisoning include myocardial ischemia, atrial fibrillation, pneumonia, pulmonary edema, high blood sugar, lactic acidosis, muscle necrosis, acute kidney failure, skin lesions, and visual and auditory problems.[20][24][25][26]
On a somewhat related note, I recently read that carbon monoxide poisoning is no longer a viable means of committing suicide. Apparently various environmental laws have required automakers to scrub their exhaust fumes to the point where they’re no longer guaranteed to be lethal. Some people have tried to kill themselves with the old “lock myself in the garage with the engine running” and woken up the next morning with nothing more than a headache and an upset tummy.
Really need not be so fancy to produce painless death by hypoxia. Put a well-oiled playground carousel in a soundproof room, with an external driver. Roll your blindfolded victim up to it on a gurney and secure their ankles to the hub, and get it spinning so the G-force keeps their blood from recirculating in their brains, and in three minutes or so they’re gone.
Why not Nitrous Oxide? I’m sure that there’s a good reason but it always seemed to me that it would be better than cyanide gas in a chamber. Or maybe a “cocktail” of Nitrous Oxide and then cyanide.
Only 18.5-20% of the air we breathe is O2, the rest is up to 70% nitrogen.
Some industrial processes that generate combustible gasses (like methane from grain) pump in nitrogen to displace the oxygen, which removes that part of the fire triangle. I’ve seen where a maintenance technician overlooked the oxygen replenishment procedure, and enetered a confined space and died. But also: a coworker only put his arm and head into the space to pull him out, and died as well.
I can vouch. I’ve personally been present for 2 different incidents where people have attempted suicide this way. As heartless as it sounds, it was quite amusing to listen to them when they found out WHY it didn’t work.
Just a wild guess, but maybe there’s a psychological component where they don’t want the condemned to look like they’re enjoying themselves…?
Haven’t we reached a point yet were we can have “death rays”?
A ray so powerful it just vaporizes the convict instantly? I know in real world terms it probably wouldn’t be practical, but if money and power consumption were no object, could we do it?
I have seen instructions for making your own monoxide suicide machine. CO is readily available from welding suppliers. There was a warning to put up big signs that say DANGER CARBON MONOXIDE to protect people finding you, and to keep them from disconnecting the device (basically a face mask) before you are dead, although apparently you will be rapidly.
I say death by high explosive. A hand grenade would probably be sufficient, but just in case, seat the prisoner on a 155mm howitzer shell and set it off. I hear Lil Kim has done that in a few cases, so it’s trendy!