Attorneys for Kenneth Eugene Smith, 58, filed an amended lawsuit challenging the proposed new execution method as a potential violation of the Constitution’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment. They asked a federal judge to issue a preliminary injunction to block the execution from going forward next year.

“There is sparse research on how long a human must be exposed to 100% pure nitrogen to cause death, what happens if a human is exposed to less than 100% pure nitrogen for a prolonged period of time, or on the pain or sensations that a human exposed to nitrogen might experience,” his attorneys wrote in the amended lawsuit filed Monday.

They noted in the filing that the American Veterinary Medical Association wrote in 2020 euthanasia guidelines that nitrogen hypoxia is an acceptable method of euthanasia for pigs but not other mammals because it could create an “anoxic environment that is distressing for some species.”

  • hglman@lemmy.ml
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    1 year ago

    Being exploded, your nerves can’t act fast enough to notice. A high explosive attached to your head would be painless.

      • WhatAmLemmy@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        I’ve always thought a rocket-sled, where you are strapped on like superman, and accelerated head first into a concrete wall, would be a pretty fun suicide.

        It’s like a rollercoaster that ends in blank

      • finestnothing@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Fun fact! Inmates have stayed alive and conscious for over 10 seconds after being shot by the firing squad, it’s an extremely painful, violent, and bloody execution method! A lot of the pain can come from shattered bones and spinal column damage which gets to your brain before shock and/or death can set in

    • workerONE@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      That sounds simpler than my idea of firing squad with thousands of rifles could by a computer