The requested article has expired, and is no longer available. Any related articles, and user comments are shown below.
© Thomson Reuters 2024.Alabama executes prisoner with new nitrogen asphyxiation method
By Evan Garcia and Jonathan Allen ATMORE, Ala©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.
46 Comments
Login to comment
nandakandamanda
So what happened to the guy who ordered the hit, the husband?
Daniel Neagari
He killed himself when he knew the police was going to arrest him.
You can check the BBC's article about that
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-68089279
Wasabi
barbaric
Redemption
Sounds hideous.
nandakandamanda
Nothing worse than being unable to breathe for any length of time...
opheliajadefeldt
Execution by asphyxiation using pure nitrogen, ugh!! sounds horrible. In his case the jury voted for life imprisonment, but judge over ruled that verdict and gave him the death penalty......What was the point of even having a jury, the judge KNEW what he was going to do, and did it. Phoney justice again in the USA.
Quo Primum
Being stabbed to death is pretty horrible too.
And that's what he did to Elizabeth Sennett, whose name this article didn't even bother to mention.
For the love of God in Heaven, why do the media -- in these death penalty articles which almost always ooze with sympathy for the murderer -- hardly ever bother to even name the murder victims?
kiwiboy
Nobody should have the right to take another persons life. Not an individual, nor the government.
He murderer committed murder, which he shouldn't have, so he must be punished. Life in jail without parole would do the trick.
Just because he committed a wrong doesn't give the state justification to either.
Sven Asai
In principal not against death penalties for very big crimes, but based only on unconstitutional law and judged by massive bias with jury overruling? There's surely something going wrong in Alabama, isn't it?
Cards fan
Does one wrong call for another? He Ms. Sennett didn't deserve to meet the end that she did, and neither did Mr. Smith. I find it reprehensible that his execution was carried out as an experiment. After already trying to execute him. Especially because a jury had previously voted 11-1 to sentence him to life in prison.
It's in there.
Speed
Why don't they put the person under general anaesthesia and wait until they're completely unconcious before executing him or her?
Wouldn't that be the easiest and most humane way?
wallace
Barbaric.
32 minutes to die is a long time.
TaiwanIsNotChina
That's basically what lethal injection is and they are having trouble getting the drugs and people supplied for this non-medical use.
TokyoLiving
Justice prevails..
Redemption
I think a bullet to the head would be preferable or how about some fentanyl you can buy on any street corner?
Hawkeye
It would have been more humane to use nitrous oxide.
quercetum
Like a cockroach sprayed with insecticide. Civil society.
itsonlyrocknroll
If the families of the victims demanded harsh retribution.......
The execution began at 7:53 p.m. and Smith was declared dead at 8:25 p.m., prison officials said.
Smith appeared to remain conscious for several minutes after the nitrogen was activated, according to five journalists who were allowed to watch the execution through glass as media witnesses. He then began shaking and writhing on the gurney for about two minutes, and then could be seen breathing deeply for several minutes before his breathing slowed and became imperceptible, the witnesses said.
The tried and trusted method Judicial hanging......
Suspending them from the neck with a noose or ligature. Hanging has been a common method of capital punishment since the Middle Ages, and is the primary execution method in numerous countries and regions. wiki
Commonly termed as.......
"hangman's fracture" — a break between the head and the neck, effectively snapping the upper cervical spine.
There is a disclaimer......
Though nobody really knows how long it takes a person to die from hanging, experts say it is probably anywhere from a few seconds to a couple of minutes.
Something for the guilty party to mull over between mouthfuls of his/her last meal.
Elvis is here
Shocking. It was the second attempt to kill him. The first was autumn 2022:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-68053917
wallace
Listen to a reporter on the BBC World Service who was in the execution chamber as a witness. He called it very violent.
Cards fan
This is a bit of misnomer. "Hangman's fractures" are often the result of high speed collisions or falls, and aren't all that fatal. It hanging works by cutting off the oxygen to the body.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hangman%27s_fracture
Stephen Chin
My brother who is a doctor, killed a stray dog with a split-second shot of air
in his leg vein. I witnessed the killing. It was instantaneous.
Elvis is here
The number of executions in the US has been falling for the past two decades. Let's put an end to this barbaric practice.
itsonlyrocknroll
Execution....The tone the meaning has to provoke intense unspeakable fear, the so called deterrent, justice punishment for heinous crimes.
To face execution, the method process itself must encompass a singular macabre, the decree, the Judgement, the solemn act of enforcing the legal judgment.
The time spent on death row, the last meal, the walk slow deliberate to the designated place of execution.
The dark dramatic last few moment, the impending ultimate punishment.
Add in the prospect of the execution lasting 32 minutes.
An added bonus for the victims families?
Barbaric indeed with a capital B.
Is it Justice?
That he/she got what they deserved?
One other thought, what if their is a miscarriage of Justice?
MilesTeg
There are many studies that show that capital punishment doesn't deter crimes like murder. It's not as if a person planning murder is going to stop because there is the death penalty in their state or country. It's been documented that though some family members of victims say that the death of the murderer brings them closure, in most cases it doesn't. Knowing that the murderer is in prison for life or for a very long time often brings some peace of mind.....as much as the death penalty does.
So if it's not to deter or decrease crimes like murder, the only benefit it brings is financial in nature. The state no longer have to spend tax money to incarcerate, feed, and take care of the murderer.
If the only benefit of murdering a murderer is lowering expenses, it's a weak, cold, and contradictory justification.
zibala
Smith was convicted of murdering Elizabeth Sennett, a preacher's wife, after he and an accomplice each accepted a $1,000 fee from her husband to kill her,
Humane justice.
He will never again commit murder for hire.
Let the punishment fit the crime.
itsonlyrocknroll
Capital punishment, justice or vengeance/judicial homicide?
PTownsend
I echo those saying this and other forms of capital punishment are barbaric.
Speed
If someone killed a person I loved or was fond of, I'd want that prisoner to feel absolute terror for a while before going to execution. Yeah, I'd feel good about it. I'm not against the death penalty.
As for another poster calling hypocrisy about posters belting out anti-China or Iran rhetoric, I think most people here feel that those who are being executed in those countries are unfarily being executed i.e. political dissent, possession of drugs, anti-Islamic conduct etc. This scum bag in this article deserved to die.
TaiwanIsNotChina
I vote for Democrats, but x32 and x100 factors aren't nothing.
TaiwanIsNotChina
That's another scandal. How bad do these executioners have to be to not be able to start an IV. In the hospital they can't just say, "I give up, send him away".
Mr Kipling
Wow. Life is cheap. And yet still some seem to have sympathy for this low life.
Cards fan
That's vengeance. And not usually a great look.
One could reasonably argue that many people executed in the US are unfairly treated.
I'd argue that the judge overruling the 11-1 of the jury is unfair. You don't have to take my word for it either. The state of Alabama has since been abolished as unconstitutional.
itsonlyrocknroll
Speed, from the view of the victims families, the loss, under such harrowing circumstances drives the need for justice, capital punishment is reasonable and warranted.
Could anybody stand in front of the victims family and explain otherwise, call for mercy when the convicted preparators committed crimes so callously.
To show mercy when no mercy was forthcoming/given.
Peter14
Took 32 minutes to pronounce the man dead.
Execution by firing squad takes under a minute for the death announcement and most of that time is the doctor getting to the body.
This new method is certainly not the fastest method and I doubt it is the most humane.
They should return to the firing squad which is over in an instant. It doesnt even need people to shoot the guns they can be set up in fixed positions and a button used to fire them.
zibala
No, that's the punishment administered in accordance with the US Constitution, and the laws of Alabama.
Perfectly legal, and perfectly fitting according to the legal system.
chotto_2
'cos that's what Jesus would sanction, right?
falseflagsteve
State sanctioned murder in the nation named the Land of the Free which ironically imprisons more of its citizens than any nation on earth.
theFu
Nitrogen alone is terrible. Inject him with something to make him unconscious or even placed into a comma, then suffocate him with nitrogen.
The debate about murder as a punishment for exceptionally heinous crimes goes on. It has been found legal at all levels of courts in the US. Some states choose not to use it, which is fine too. Capitol punishment AFTER conviction takes over a decade for the automatic appeals.
The "woke" people refusing to supply more humane solutions are partially to blame, but none of this would have happened if Smith didn't kill that woman for $1000. I am a little surprised that he got the death penalty for a single murder. That's Alabama.
TaiwanIsNotChina
Objectively not true when you take into count per capita;
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_incarceration_rate
Not sure anybody believes numbers coming out of China, either.
falseflagsteve
What is stated is factual regarding numbers imprisoned. If you need to try and compare with a facist state like China you’re really clutching at straws.
TaiwanIsNotChina
If I say India has a larger gdp than Japan, that doesn't reflect that India is a wealthy country, now does it?
falseflagsteve
Taiwan
Oh sorry, i forgot the land of the free is a utopia
TaiwanIsNotChina
Well we do have more lenient drug laws and uncensored porn. You may say these are terrible things but they are aspects of freedom.