ATMORE, Ala. (AP) — As witnesses including five news reporters watched through a window, Kenneth Eugene Smith, who was convicted and sentenced to die in the 1988 murder-for hire slaying of Elizabet…
Definitely. They either need to find a way to prevent breath holding or just use some other method.
Or just stop executing people, but we know that one isn’t going to happen any time soon.
of course you would
I think if it was me, and they explained how it worked and told me holding my breath would make it painful, I wouldn’t try to hold my breath. But I 100% understand and empathize with the reason most people would, meaning the method needs revision or not to be used.
But unfortunately this is probably leading people to believe that inert gas asphyxiation is a violent painful event when it’s actually one of the most peaceful methods for those who want or accept it.
An important thing to note:
This is your well reasoned decision, when you are not facing the imminent prospect of death.
When you’re sitting in that chair, strapped down, the eyes of everyone in the gallery staring at you with hate (or even worse, bored disinterest), the guards busily preparing your murder around you, refusing eye contact, knowing that in a few minutes they’ll be carrying your cadaver to some unmarked grave, your heart racing, pounding in your ears, the murmur of medical devices, the beep beep beep of a heart monitor you know will soon be silent.
Under these stressful conditions you might not be consciously able to breathe deeply, the lizard brain may take over to extend what little time it has on this Earth.
I guess that could be true. Somewhere between deliberate action and pure instinct automatically triggered by a specific chemical circumstance. I still kind of think I personally would go with it, but I guess it’s a “what would you do” where an obvious answer isn’t always so obvious in the moment.
Like the trolley problem, the logical answer is to switch the tracks, and I think I’d do it, but maybe something in the moment stops me or makes me hesitate just a little too long. You can never really know unless it actually happens.
Definitely. They either need to find a way to prevent breath holding or just use some other method.
Or just stop executing people, but we know that one isn’t going to happen any time soon.
I think if it was me, and they explained how it worked and told me holding my breath would make it painful, I wouldn’t try to hold my breath. But I 100% understand and empathize with the reason most people would, meaning the method needs revision or not to be used.
But unfortunately this is probably leading people to believe that inert gas asphyxiation is a violent painful event when it’s actually one of the most peaceful methods for those who want or accept it.
An important thing to note: This is your well reasoned decision, when you are not facing the imminent prospect of death.
When you’re sitting in that chair, strapped down, the eyes of everyone in the gallery staring at you with hate (or even worse, bored disinterest), the guards busily preparing your murder around you, refusing eye contact, knowing that in a few minutes they’ll be carrying your cadaver to some unmarked grave, your heart racing, pounding in your ears, the murmur of medical devices, the beep beep beep of a heart monitor you know will soon be silent.
Under these stressful conditions you might not be consciously able to breathe deeply, the lizard brain may take over to extend what little time it has on this Earth.
I guess that could be true. Somewhere between deliberate action and pure instinct automatically triggered by a specific chemical circumstance. I still kind of think I personally would go with it, but I guess it’s a “what would you do” where an obvious answer isn’t always so obvious in the moment.
Like the trolley problem, the logical answer is to switch the tracks, and I think I’d do it, but maybe something in the moment stops me or makes me hesitate just a little too long. You can never really know unless it actually happens.