Thursday, February 12, 2015

Re: Nitrogen

On Thu, Feb 12, 2015 at 8:32 AM, Larry wrote:

'Republicans in Oklahoma are advocating for the state to become the country's first to execute death row inmates with nitrogen in a gas chamber. Executions currently are on hold in Oklahoma, pending a decision by the U.S. Supreme Court on a case involving the controversial sedative midazolam.

Legislative hearings on a House and Senate bill regarding the issue are scheduled for this week. If a court find the state's lethal injection procedures unconstitutional, the new measures would make death through the use of nitrogen an alternative plan for execution in Oklahoma. By using nitrogen gas, the inmate would die from hypoxia, or the depletion of oxygen to the bloodstream.

Republican state Rep. Mike Christian, who conducted a hearing last summer on hypoxia...told The Associated Press that using nitrogen would be "a lot more practical" than requiring medical doctors for executions or using poisonous drugs like cyanide…

Four states — Arizona, California, Missouri and Wyoming — currently have gas chamber procedures in place, but lethal injection remains the primary method of execution, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. '

http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/oklahoma-republicans-push-gas-chamber-execution-alternative

I heard that Utah was considering the firing squad as an alternative to lethal injection.  It makes more sense to me to have something that (I presume) is relatively painless.

Critics of lethal injection are just trying to ban capital punishment.  Although I mostly agree, I think that maybe they aren't being honest about their motives.
 
​John Coffey​

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