An execution had to be called off in Ohio yesterday when prison staff couldn’t find a useful vein (the defendant may have been an IV drug abuser in the past): Failed execution of Romell Broom prompts efforts to block 2nd attempt | cleveland.com. Why have states gotten away from using gas chambers?
From Wiki:
In addition to the gruesome deaths noted above, my understanding is that cyanide gas chambers are a pain to maintain, and can be dangerous to the staff. I don’t know if switching to a 100% N2 system would help with those issues—the accidents I’ve read about with 100% N2 indicate unconsciousness is damn near instantaneous—but it’s still probably cheaper and less messy to go the lethal injection route.
A lot of governments accept injection as the most humane method of execution. Its also one of the more cheaper methods. I believe they use a two IV system in case there’s a problem with the first one. Even then, there can be problems. Im a little surprised there isnt a backup method.
I think the real issue is how the state’s supreme court as well as the US supreme court handles the cruel and unusual issue. I dont know much about Ohio, but it could be a real legal mess.
I am curious if anyone actually knows this or it is just easier on the people watching.
Since these people die we cannot ask them what they felt as the drugs took hold and they died. For all we know it could be psychologically tortuous.
One drug knocks you out.
The next paralyzes you.
The next stops your heart.
If the knock out drug doesn’t totally knock you out you may be aware you are asphyxiating and your heart is stopping but be totally unable to let people know that is the case.
Maybe it is 100% effective and the prisoner has no clue. Just curious how they know that.
Well, it’s definitely easier on the people watching. It’s hard to find out how it works on the person being executed because he’s not likely to talk about it.*
Of course, if you think the death penalty is a deterrent, it follows that you should make the death as gruesome as possible and show it to everyone live on TV. That way people will be discouraged.
Let’s not be namby-pamby about the death penalty. Switch to the guillotine!
*Some stupid rule about telling no tales, I gather.
But putting someone under seems easy enough. It’s done thousands of times everyday before surgeries. I know that some people have reported being awake during surgery, but that is because a delicate mix of the drug has to be applied (enough to put you under, but not enough to kill you).
With a lethal injection, no such calculation needs to be made. Give someone enough IV fluids X10 that you would give them for surgery…
Maybe they should use nitrogen gas. When I was researching the dangers of liquid nitrogen for a project a few sites cautioned against using it in an enclosed room. Supposedly the nitrogen replaces oxygen in the air and you’ll pass out before realizing anything was wrong.
Either that or they were grossly exaggerating the dangers of liquid nitrogen.
Another way is to limit appeals. Executing someone 15 or 20 years after they committed their crime kills the cause & effect factor that could serve as a deterrent.
I don’t know who it was, but I saw a guy on television once who was an attorney that specialized in death penalty cases. He stated that if his convicted clients were given a choice he’d recommend hanging. When done properly it causes instant unconsciousness.
Aye, “when done properly,” but there’s the rub.
Here’s an interesting 2007 GD thread on a (slightly) similar topic.
As I understand it, the guillotine was touted as the most humane execution available. Gross, but humane.
I think it’s a shame that we waste a perfectly useful living body with death “penalty.” Come on, it’s not “punishment” if the guy doesn’t receive the psychological benefit of the action. If society thinks it’s important to permanently remove someone from the general population, put them to work under humane conditions until the day they die. Death penalty is purely for the benefit of those left behind who didn’t do enough to protect the victim in the first place and need some way to relieve their guilt and have the last say. But I guess that’s GD territory. Sorry.
I’m absolutely against the death penalty but the impression I get (admittedly from popular culture) is that Britain had the rope lengths worked out properly from the 1890s onwards.
Of course Britain still managed to execute people who were innocent, even with the right rope length.
Rope length is one thing; the actual mechanics of hanging a felon is something else again. Just ask Saddam Hussein.
It will displace the oxygen in a room just as carbon dioxide or methane would. Most places with large N2 tanks inside buildings should have 02 sensors. We had those when I worked for GE.
With Saddam Hussein’s hanging the problems came with the lack of security, something which could have happened no matter what the method being used. I think you’re thinking of one of his henchmen who was decapitated when being hanged. That would have been because they gave him too much rope - like I say, the impression I have is that Britain worked out how much rope to give (taking into account height, weight, neck girth and neck strength) to cause instant death without decapitation. Like I also say I find the whole thing reprehensible.
I’ll let one of the resident physicians talk the details of anesthesiology, but suffice it to say that it is both not quite that simple. The Hippocratic Oath and the AMA Code of Medical Ethics prohibits physicians from participating in injection by lethal injection, so executions are not generally conducted or supervised by people with extensive medical training (typically by someone with some background as a medic or nurses aide). In lethal injection, the actual process of the injection is done without human intervention aside from starting the cycle. The Errol Morris documentary, Mr. Death: The Rise and Fall of Fred A. Leuchter, Jr., gives insight into one of the “experts” in execution technology, demonstrating just what a hacktastic field this is.
There is probably no infallibly humane way to kill someone, but death via gradual hypoxia and anoxia is probably pretty close, as the subject will just become drowsy and eventually lose consciousness. Massive blood loss is also pretty painless. Short of that, the guillotine is probably the quickest way to ensure death, though there is still debate over how long a decapitated head can maintain consciousness.
There is no respected or peer reviewed study that has ever demonstrated any deterrent effectiveness in capital punishment, so arguing for an execution method that enhances deterrence is a non sequitur. The reason to execute felons humanely (if we are to do so at all) is not for their comfort, but to protect our own humanity and sense of dignity.
Stranger
It’s to bad Mme. Guillotine isn’t used anywhere anymore (or is it, my impression is that the few countries to behead felons use swords). If we hooked the head up to the right monitoring equipment we could settle once and for all how long if at all the seperated head remain consciousnes. Then again can’t we just to the same thing with chimps and extrapolate the results to humans?
Personally I’m pretty sure the loss of blood pressure causes instant loss of consciousness but whether or not that’s the case I won’t watch the film about Sophie Scholl because it would be too fucking depressing.
(was G. Odoreida in earlier posts).