• shalafi@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    Nitrogen gas, hands down. Plenty of others gases, except CO2, would work but NO2 is cheap. We don’t have “low O2” sensors, we have “high CO2” sensors. I remember a teen couple making love in a helium filled store balloon/display. They died clueless.

    The reason for the very publicized failure last time it was tried was using a mask. Simply put the condemned in a small room and flood it, just like astronaut’s hypoxia trainings. Going out silly and stoned would be about as nice as it gets. And having said that, I have no idea why we don’t OD prisoners on opiates. Seems like a no-brainer.

    As to the firing squad, I feel that’s fairly “humane”, would be my third choice if it was me. The condemned just slump and die. Hollywood doesn’t do the nature of gunshot wounds justice. People mostly just drop, strings cut. The lack of drama is far more horrifying than getting knocked through a window. Unfortunately, I saw a video of Mexican police shotgunning a protesting student at 1-2’. The victim looked a little stunned and fell like a sack potatoes. Original cowboy movies showed death like that, but audiences didn’t feel it was realistic.

    Rifle rounds setup a shock wave that rearranges your chest cavity. And they’re not using some wimpy bullet such as an AR-15 chambers. Something like a 30.06 or .308 is a monster round. Add up 4-5 hits like that, you won’t know what hit you.

    • ArbitraryValue@sh.itjust.works
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      3 months ago

      As to the firing squad, I feel that’s fairly “humane”, would be my third choice if it was me.

      It seems like our modern execution methods are concerned more about the comfort of society than the comfort of the condemned. Shooting someone feels more like killing than the bloodless alternatives. Or am I making things up? I wonder if there has been any research into this.

    • meco03211@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      And having said that, I have no idea why we don’t OD prisoners on opiates. Seems like a no-brainer.

      The same reason lethal injection is so difficult. We know exactly what drugs to use. They are used on pets and animals all the time. The trouble is procuring them for the death penalty. Companies don’t want the stigma of supplying this drugs for that purpose.

      Also really amazed there’s only 2 comments about nitrogen. The sensor thing is spot on. Very humane.