180
submitted 1 year ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/news@lemmy.world

A federal judge who is weighing whether to allow the nation’s first execution by nitrogen hypoxia to go forward next month, urged Alabama on Thursday to change procedures so the inmate can pray and say his final words before the gas mask is placed on his face.

U.S. District Judge R. Austin Huffaker made the suggestion in a court order setting a Dec. 29 deadline to submit information before he rules on the inmate’s request to block the execution. The judge made similar comments the day prior at the conclusion of a court hearing.

Alabama is scheduled to execute Kenneth Eugene Smith on Jan. 25 in what would be the nation’s first execution using nitrogen gas. Nitrogen hypoxia is authorized as an execution method in Alabama, Mississippi and Oklahoma but has never been used to put an inmate to death.

The proposed execution method would use a gas mask, placed over Smith’s nose and mouth, to replace breathable air with nitrogen, causing Smith to die from lack of oxygen.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 23 points 1 year ago

But what’s the skin off anybody’s anus if he wants to be executed this way? That should at least be his decision to make.

The point is cruelty. People are objecting to execution by nitrogen because the prisoner doesn't suffer enough. That's the right-wing mentality in a nutshell. They think torturing someone doesn't make them bad people if that someone "deserves" it.

[-] tygerprints@kbin.social 2 points 1 year ago

Good lord. The man probably already lives in a mental hell every single day, what more cruelty does his situation require. Adding more torture to the procedure certainly won't right any wrongs he may have done, and only unbalances the scales in the direction of bringing more cruelty into the situation than already existed.

[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

Right, but for them, it's all about revenge and suffering. They don't care about anything else for anyone in prison. As far as they're concerned (unless, of course, it's one of their own), whatever the judge has ordered, that's what you deserve.

Now I admit, apart from the cases where the death row inmate was exonerated, in general, the crimes they've been found guilty of are particularly horrific and atrocious, but we should be better than them. That's what Republicans don't seem to get. You shouldn't sink down to the level of actual convicted murderers.

[-] tygerprints@kbin.social 2 points 1 year ago

That's a great point, and one I've tried to make to people (without much success) many times. If you become as cruel and fueled by revenge or hate as the person who did something terrible, then you've sunk to their level or even lower. Revenge never balances anyone's scales - it just weighs the side with EVIL in it down with even greater weight.

And I'm not against capital punishment, in some ways it seems a little less cruel than giving someone a lifetime sentence in prison. I do agree with you absolutely on everything you've said.

this post was submitted on 22 Dec 2023
180 points (95.9% liked)

News

23659 readers
3567 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil


Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.


2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.


Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. We have an actively updated blocklist, which you can see here: https://lemmy.world/post/2246130 if you feel like any website is missing, contact the mods. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.


3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.


Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.


4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.


Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.


5. Only recent news is allowed.


Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.


6. All posts must be news articles.


No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.


7. No duplicate posts.


If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.


8. Misinformation is prohibited.


Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.


9. No link shorteners.


The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.


10. Don't copy entire article in your post body


For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS