On that subject, there is a great documentary with former British MP Michael Portillo about humane death penalty methods: http://video.google.com/videoplay?doc

On that subject, there is a great documentary with former British MP Michael Portillo about humane death penalty methods: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8068091823725414405# http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8068091823725414405... He comes to the conclusion nitrogen would be the most humane (euphoria, then painless death). Apparantly it won't get used because those states that still use the death penalty find this way of leaving the temporary for the infinite a bit too easy on the convicted... (forward to 45:30 in the video).