Nitrogen gas

California Death row

Nitrogen gas may be the next method of state-sanctioned executions, according to The New York Times. Many states are considering the gas as an alternative to the controversial use of other lethal drug combinations.

“25 percent of millennial-age American men think asking a woman who is not a romantic partner to go for a drink is harassment,” according to a recent survey by The Economist/YouGov reports The New York Times 1-17-18.

The change in execution method comes on the heels of lawsuits alleging botched attempts with lethal injections, which were supposed to be more humane than the electric chair or gas chamber.

Execution teams have experienced difficulties obtaining the drugs used in lethal injections. However, experts question the efficiency of using nitrogen as a feasible solution because there is no existing scientific data.

“The total drug-overdose deaths was 64,070 in the 12 months through January 2017.” The Wall Street Journal, Oct. 27, 2017

“If and when states begin carrying out executions with nitrogen, it will amount to the same type of experimentation we see in the different variations of lethal injections” lawyer and expert on lethal injection at the Berkeley Law Death Penalty Clinic Jen Moreno told the New York Times.

Any state, federal or military prison that experiments with the nitrogen gas as an executional method will be scrutinized as a test lab, the article said.

An Alabama execution team was accused of puncturing the bladder of a prisoner as well as opening an artery during an attempt to find a vein suitable for their lethal injection.

In response to the still-existing need for a more viable solution, Oklahoma, Mississippi and Alabama have now authorized the use of nitrogen gas as a means of execution.

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Alabama is considering use of nitrogen asphyxia as a third option to execute prisoners.

“If SB12 is passed, Alabama would become the second state (Oklahoma is the other) to offer nitrogen asphyxiation, also known as nitrogen hypoxia, as a death penalty option,” the Montgomery Advertiser reported.

gas chamber

Nitrogen is painless and easier to administer, said Sen. Trip Pittman, R-Montrose, the bill’s author. Nitrogen makes up 78 percent of the atmosphere and is harmless when inhaled with oxygen, the newspaper reported April 5.

Alabama had also considered execution by firing squad, but the nitrogen option was substituted. Current options are lethal injection and electric chair.

“No country has actually used it (nitrogen) for death penalty purposes”

Oklahoma passed a similar bill in 2015, although the method has not been used.

“No country has actually used it (nitrogen) for death penalty purposes, although deaths due to nitrogen asphyxiation have been documented and studied,” the newspaper reported.

A study released in 2003 by the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board found that 80 people died from incidentally inhaling pure nitrogen between 1992 and 2002.

Although there is concern in some quarters about the safety of nitrogen, Pittman maintains that nitrogen hypoxia is more humane and easier to implement that other methods. “It is very effective. It’s also very plentiful in terms of supply,” he said.

https://sanquentinnews.com/republicans-aim-end-americas-death-penalty/

Tennessee schedules three executions

https://sanquentinnews.com/the-100th-edition-san-quentin-news/

Nitrogen gas could be new method for executions

Alabama considering asphyxia for execution