Witnesses watched through a window at an Alabama prison as Kenneth Eugene Smith became the nation's first person to be put to death using nitrogen gas.

ATMORE, Ala. (AP) — As witnesses including five news reporters watched through a window, Kenneth Eugene Smith, who was convicted and sentenced to die in the 1988 murder-for hire slaying of Elizabeth Sennett, convulsed on a gurney as Alabama carried out the nation’s first execution using nitrogen gas.

  • pwalshj@lemmy.world
    171·
    1 year ago

    That website is poison aids. That’s the fucking official AP site? We’re doomed.

    • EdibleFriend@lemmy.world
      12·
      1 year ago

      Holy fuck you’re not kidding. I assumed when you said that it was going to be just shit all over the place. The ads weren’t super intrusive? It was easy to read? But when I got down to the bottom there was shit about a homeopathy treatment for neuropathy that has left scientists speechless.

      How the fuck was that on AP

    • robocall@lemmy.worldOP
      61·
      1 year ago

      while I agree that guillotine is a more humane method of execution, we could also consider ending the death penalty completely.

  • RustyNova@lemmy.world
    527·
    1 year ago

    Oh my. I didn’t realise that it’s actually horrible for the person. Imagine grasping for air for 15 minutes! It must be horrible! That guy had a good reason to be scared of going away like that!

    … And it’s totally not an act made to stop this type of execution. It’s not like hypoxia is undetectable by the body, as the gasping reflex is driven by rising levels of carbon dioxide in the lungs, not the lack of oxygen. Nor is it like the subject had any beef against the type of execution.

    Come on. This is just fear mongering at this point