State’s ‘slow and agonizing’ execution of Kenneth Smith using an untested method labeled as cruel by experts and advocates

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/14097254

Smith’s execution by “nitrogen hypoxia” took around 22 minutes, according to media witnesses, who were led into a viewing room at the William C Holman correctional facility in Atmore shortly before 8 pm local time.

After the nitrogen gas began flowing, Smith convulsed on the gurney for several minutes. The state had previously said the nitrogen gas would cause Smith to lose consciousness in seconds and die within minutes, according to the Associated Press.

“I’ve been to four previous executions and I’ve never seen a condemned inmate thrash in the way that Kenneth Smith reacted to the nitrogen gas,” Lee Hedgepeth, a journalist who witnessed the execution, told the BBC’s Newsday programme.

  • ConfusedPossum@kbin.social
    6·
    9 months ago

    Agreed, the death penalty is inherently cruel, no matter what the person has done. Especially if you make people wait for decades in a prison cell before the sentence is carried out

    • limonfiesta@lemmy.worldEnglish
      5·
      9 months ago

      The decades are a function of the appeals processes; some mandatory, and others initiated by inmates.

      I’m not sure fast tracking the process would be an improvement…