State plans to carry out first judicial killing in 15 years on Tuesday using technique critics call inhumane

Summary

Louisiana is set to execute Jessie Hoffman by nitrogen gas on Tuesday, becoming the second state to use this method despite banning it for euthanizing cats and dogs under state law.

Lawyers argue the method constitutes cruel punishment, citing four recent Alabama executions where prisoners showed distress signs including violent shaking and convulsions.

Louisiana veterinarian Lee Capone, who helped ban animal gassing in the state, called Hoffman’s planned execution “horrific.”

A federal judge’s temporary stay was overturned Friday by the fifth circuit court. Three major nitrogen manufacturers have blocked their products from being used in executions.

  • LastYearsIrritantEnglish
    23·
    1 day ago

    There are a few problems with the ideal solution here tho. They want people around the victim to be able to interact with them (check vitals, comfort them, etc.) but not be in any danger.

    So you need a method that’s perfectly fine for the execution, but not the people in the same room.

    It’s actually a pretty tricky issue.

    • Plumbob@lemmy.zip
      1·
      9 hours ago

      That’s precisely why nitrogen is proposed. It’s 70% of the gas you breathe anyway.

      If you take a large room, and flush a basketball sized space with 100% nitrogen, it’s no danger to anyone outside that bubble. Even if the bubble is extremely leaky, it takes a long time to change the ratio of gasses in the entire space of the room. Add an exhaust fan and a source of fresh air to the room and everyone in the room outside of the nitrogen bubble would be safe indefinitely.

      That said the death penalty is unjustifiable from any perspective. It does not promote safety morality or justice, nor is it logical even from a coldly economic point of view.