Kenneth Smith ‘struggled for life’ for 22 minutes in nitrogen gas execution: Updates
www.independent.co.uk
Witness Reverend Jeff Hood told reporters he saw a man ‘struggling for their life’ for 22 minutes as Smith became the first US death row inmate executed by nitrogen asphyxia

“Kenny just began to gasp for air repeatedly and the execution took about 25 minutes total.”

Pretty compassionate way to kill a person.

Once again, the Law in the south is brutal.

  • JdW@lemmy.world
    218·
    9 months ago

    The state does not care whether they are innocent as well, and that callousness is just as bad from the eyes of people living in a civilized society…

    • 52fighters@sopuli.xyz
      69·
      9 months ago

      I’m pretty sure this guys’s guilt was beyond dispute. States have so many appeals and checks on capital punishment that it is much, much cheaper to default to life in prison. The economic argument isn’t noble but should be included in the debate.

      • GreyEyedGhost@lemmy.ca
        81·
        9 months ago

        It’s estimated that 4% of prisoners on death row are innocent. Sure, we’re certain about this guy, but that’s the case for those 4%, as well.

        • 52fighters@sopuli.xyz
          02·
          9 months ago

          That’s a good argument for increasing the threshold of guilt for capital crimes. But of those legitimately and obviously guilty, do they owe a debt equal to their own life for murdering someone else?

          • GreyEyedGhost@lemmy.ca
            3·
            9 months ago

            How does their death pay for that debt? There is no compensation, no restitution has been made, nothing else is corrected. So, why?

            • 52fighters@sopuli.xyz
              11·
              9 months ago

              It would be restoration by proxy. I once had a friend who stole money. He did not know the person and could never find him again. To make restoration he gave an equal amount plus reasonable interest to a charity, anonymously. The charity was a proxy for the man from whom he stole.

              • GreyEyedGhost@lemmy.ca
                1·
                9 months ago

                So, was the restoration something he lost, or something he returned to someone else? Would it have been restoration if he just burned the money instead of giving the money to someone?

      • PopMyCop@iusearchlinux.fyiEnglish
        52·
        9 months ago

        Which opinion? That the state doesn’t care about whether a victim of a murderer is innocent or also a criminal? You can look up just about any criminal case and see that criminals are just as often victims of crime as any ‘innocent’ person. Literally, a compatriot dying while committing a crime with you will get you charged with Felony Murder.

        If you mean that the state doesn’t care if it executes innocent people, well: https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/policy-issues/innocence

        • GilgameshCatBeard@lemmy.ca
          13·
          9 months ago

          So aside from your opinion… and a link that doesn’t even suggest what states actually care about,

          got anything else?