Nitrogen hypoxia: Why Alabama's execution
of Kenneth Smith stirs ethical controversy.

Hanging works. So does firing squad. And, if a state still has Old Sparky, electrocution. The Chair put Ted Bundy's lights out.

The McPaper. The only ethical controversy is why we fed and housed this killer for 34 years.

I don’t for a nano-second believe that there is any problem getting the drugs for lethal injection or that they’re in any way cruel. Just go to the local equine vet. I’ve had to put down a few horses and all it takes is a syringe full of whatever it is injected into a major vein in the horse’s neck. They die in a matter of seconds, maybe five. Don’t even need an IV. Quick, painless, lethal.

Odd. I don't feel it's controversial at all.

#3...Exactly so. I've had a couple put down also. Death appears instantaneous. They drop to the ground and it's over. And that's a 1000-1200 pound horse.

The professor of anesthesiology took his concerns directly to the UN. That tells you all you need to know.

#3 Is absolutely correct. Many of us have had surgery. When you are under anesthesia it doesn't take much more in the way of drugs to put you "down". Quick and painless. You don't need a nail gun to hang a picture on your den wall. The term "over kill" comes to mind. Just keep the procedure simple and quick.

Last time I checked, his victim was unavailable for comment…

Within a few days I will be taking my cat to the veterinary clinic to have her put down due to a terminal ailment. She will be the fourth cat euthanized. Did the same for my dog. All were dispatched painlessly quite quickly. Cannot that be done for the murderers? I support using a firing squad but surely if animals can be terminated humanly we can do the same for the scum of the earth.

Science doesn't really know if nitrogen hypoxia is painless. Hanging and marksmanship is painless - instantaneous death. As much as this criminal should be put to death, Alabama tried once and failed. Don't use the criminal as a guinea pig. Borrow the lethal injection shite from another state. It actually works. Otherwise nitrogen hypoxia appears to be cruel and unusual punishment.

We need to go to Televised Executions by Firing Squad!

Exactly, #8. How ethical & humane was the death of 45 year old, Elizabeth Sennett? She didn’t have a choice. The quick, easy & ethical solution to the “dilemma” has been provided in a few seconds on this board. That’s far more compassionate consideration than the innocent murder victim received. Kenneth Eugene Smith was convicted in the 1988 murder of 45-year-old Elizabeth Sennett and sentenced to death in 1996. Although the jury voted 11-1 to sentence Smith to life in prison without the possibility of parole, a trial judge overruled the jury's recommendation and sentenced him to death, according to court documents. Sennett's husband, the Rev. Charles Sennett, who was deeply in debt, paid Smith and 42-year-old John Forrest Parker $1,000 each in a scheme to collect insurance on his wife's death. Smith and Parker stabbed Sennett eight times in the chest and once on each side of her neck, according to court documents. A week later, Charles Sennett died by suicide after learning he was suspected in the murder. Parker was also convicted and sentenced to death in the killing. He was executed by lethal injection in 2010.

I've been a proponent of this for years. In the 1970s, when working for a large chemical company, an engineer who had the office next to me, young and ignorant, went to a construction site for our large chemical company near the engineering center where we worked. He wanted to check on a small steam turbine that had been delivered to the site. Small is a relative term, and this unit had a steam exit pipe about 4 feet in diameter. As delivered it had a plywood cover held on by a few bolts to keep out dirt and the weather. The young engineer unbolted the cover, grabbed a flashlight and crawled up into the horizontal, curving upwards outlet. Imagine a huge turbocharger sort of a housing, for those who have worked on cars. He crawled in to see the condition of the rotor, and fortunately had a friend standing outside. After a minute of this inspection, him laying on his back, only feet sticking out of the housing, his coworker said "hey, how's it look.?" No response, and several further 'no responses' and finally the coworker dragged him out of the pipe, unconcious. As soon as he was in the open air, he began to gradually wake up. After a few minutes, he was fine. It turns out the steam turbine had been shipped filled with dry nitrogen to prevent rust. I asked him later that day whether he felt anything happening ....he said he felt nothing at all, "Someone just turned out the lights on me, then I was waking up on the grass." Totally painless and if not brought out into good air promptly, he would have died. Since the open air is 78% nitrogen and 21% oxygen, we are used to the lack of taste, smell or color of nitrogen. And the 'must breath' or 'drowning' feeling is triggered by excess CO2in the blood, not actually by low oxygen levels, so as long as you can exhale the CO2, and get no oxygen with the nitrogen on inhaling, you won't know anything is wrong until the lights go out. Perfect painless execution and pretty low risk for the staff. After the execution, turn on exhaust fans and let in normal air, and the 'cleanup' is done. The old 'gas chamber' used cyanide, and while quickly deadly, could also harm the staff by accident.

Re #10, NOT TRUE. See my post. It has been tested.

Agree with others that this would be a painless method. I worked for decades in an industry where we used high purity nitrogen (N2) gas purges for lots of things. We had to undergo confined space training and understand when exhaust systems didn’t work as you could simply pass out and die in an oxygen depleted atmosphere. Had to watch many safety training videos on the subject. You basically silently pass out and don’t wake up. Rule is if someone is down in a confined space, do not go in without SCBA as they’re probably already dead. But here’s another solution; why not give these condemned criminals a 10x or 20x lethal dose of fentanyl? Seems like there is more than enough of that stuff around for free, and we know it is painless and very effective.

Dead is dead. As long as they are not pulling the nails by the roots or branding him with white hot irons then get er done.

Easy, just fill a garbage bag with laughing gas and put it over Smith's head. He'll pass out in a couple of minutes and suffocate painlessly after that. No question about it.

Thank you, DVC (#13) and OkieTom (#15) for your informative comments regarding a nitrogen atmosphere. Sounds like this would work well, and the anesthesia overdose would also work well. both completely painless. I think it's a waste to keep a confirmed murderer in prison -at taxpayer expense- for decades and hundreds of thousand$. Go ahead and put 'em down...... but first make ABSOLUTELY sure that the perp is guilty, as there's no "Oops, we got the wrong guy, let's undo this".