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Title is what the news story said, but it is not accurate and it's sensationalized. They are not using poison gas (a la Zyklon B, which is the parallel I suspe

Title is what the news story said, but it is not accurate and it's sensationalized. They are not using poison gas (a la Zyklon B, which is the parallel I suspect they want you to draw). They are using nitrogen gas, effectively displacing oxygen and asphyxiating the patient. This is massively important because of how inhumane poisonous gases tend to be, and how humane death by inert gas is. Your body calculated whether you are asphyxiating by measuring your bodies ability to expel CO2, not it's ability to intake oxygen. As long as you can expel CO2, your body thinks everything is fine, even if there is no oxygen to breathe. As such, sufferers tend to not even realize that they are dying. I'm not a big proponent of the death penalty, but if we are going to enforce it, I see no reason to make it any more gruesome or unpleasant than it has to be. Then again, I strongly suspect that the suffering of the convict is a big part of the reason we do things the way we do. A 12 gauge buckshot shell to the back of the head seems far more humane than the electric chair, and has existed for longer (well, maybe not 12 gauges specifically, but shotguns in general). The only reason I can think that we keep inventing these overly complicated and yet still gruesome ways to kill people is to ensure that the convict suffers, while being just humane enough that people can palate it.

nix23 6y ago
>and how humane death by inert gas is Just imagine telling that Jesus...as an example.
MeinBlutIstBlau 6y ago
Hanging is a relatively humane way of the death penalty. I mean that's why the Table of Drops exists. It calculates the size and weight of a person, along with the length of rope and height of the drop. It basically has come down to a science in its own right determining what is the proper height that'll snap someone's neck and asphyxiate them, but one strangle them gruesomely or sever their head off.
tssva 6y ago
The title is also misleading because these forms of execution are already legal within the US. They are currently used by some states. The rule change is to allow the use of them for federal executions if they are already legal forms of execution within the state the federal execution is to take place in.
rsynnott 6y ago
> They are not using poison gas (a la Zyklon B, which is the parallel I suspect they want you to draw). They are using nitrogen gas, effectively displacing oxygen and asphyxiating the patient. This is massively important because of how inhumane poisonous gases tend to be, and how humane death by inert gas is. While it's listed in the article as an example, no-one has ever actually been executed via nitrogen asphyxiation (though it is used in slaughterhouses in some countries). The only sort of executions by gas which have actually been performed in the US used hydrogen cyanide; no such executions have happened since the 90s, but it's still on the books in a few states. Hydrogen cyanide is indeed the active ingredient in Zyklon B. This rule would appear to allow the federal death penalty to use hydrogen cyanide in certain states where it's still legal (though it's hard to imagine that they actually would; _horrible_ optics, and it's extremely inhumane).

nix23 6y ago

>and how humane death by inert gas is Just imagine telling that Jesus...as an example.

MeinBlutIstBlau 6y ago

Hanging is a relatively humane way of the death penalty. I mean that's why the Table of Drops exists. It calculates the size and weight of a person, along with the length of rope and height of the drop. It basically has come down to a science in its own right determining what is the proper height that'll snap someone's neck and asphyxiate them, but one strangle them gruesomely or sever their head off.

tssva 6y ago

The title is also misleading because these forms of execution are already legal within the US. They are currently used by some states. The rule change is to allow the use of them for federal executions if they are already legal forms of execution within the state the federal execution is to take place in.

rsynnott 6y ago

> They are not using poison gas (a la Zyklon B, which is the parallel I suspect they want you to draw). They are using nitrogen gas, effectively displacing oxygen and asphyxiating the patient. This is massively important because of how inhumane poisonous gases tend to be, and how humane death by inert gas is. While it's listed in the article as an example, no-one has ever actually been executed via nitrogen asphyxiation (though it is used in slaughterhouses in some countries). The only sort of executions by gas which have actually been performed in the US used hydrogen cyanide; no such executions have happened since the 90s, but it's still on the books in a few states. Hydrogen cyanide is indeed the active ingredient in Zyklon B. This rule would appear to allow the federal death penalty to use hydrogen cyanide in certain states where it's still legal (though it's hard to imagine that they actually would; _horrible_ optics, and it's extremely inhumane).