Nitrogen gas executions approved by Oklahoma House

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

Nitrogen gas executions approved by Oklahoma House
By SEAN MURPHY, Associated Press | March 3, 2015 | Updated: March 3, 2015 2:09pm

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Oklahoma would become the first state to allow the execution of death row inmates using nitrogen gas under a bill overwhelmingly approved on Tuesday by the House of Representatives.

The House voted 85-10 for the bill by Oklahoma City Republican Rep. Mike Christian, who began studying alternative methods after a botched lethal injection in the spring that led the U.S. Supreme Court to consider the constitutionality of Oklahoma's current three-drug method.

Christian said numerous studies have been conducted on nitrogen hypoxia, which is similar to what pilots at high altitudes can encounter when oxygen supplies diminish. He described the method as humane, painless and easy to administer.

"I believe it's revolutionary," said Christian, a former Oklahoma Highway Patrol trooper and a staunch advocate of the death penalty. "I think it's the best thing we've come up with since the start of executions by the government."


Read more: http://www.chron.com/news/us/article/Nitrogen-gas-executions-approved-by-Oklahoma-House-6112154.php

[KamaAina]

1. Suffocating them?!

[Romeo.lima333]

2. it's not suffocating them like putting a pillow over the face

all that pain and feeling of suffocation comes from a build up of co2 not a lack of oxygen - you dont suffocate you pass out then the lack of o2 is what eventually kills

[KamaAina]

3. What would you call depriving them of oxygen?

Of course, there really is no such thing as a civilized way to execute people.

[Romeo.lima333]

4. the post was amended - but i'd call it o2 deprivation

[Romeo.lima333]

5. depends on the definition of civilized

[DeSwiss]

31. Definition of Civilized: People who don't murder. Period.

- Glad to be of help......

[PosterChild]

35. Ok, now you're going to have to....

... define "murder."

[Romeo.lima333]

41. yes you do b/c capitol punishment for capitol crimes isnt murder

[stone space]

55. Of course it is murder. Why should we pretend otherwise.

Look, if we are going to murder people as punishment, let's at least have the courage to admit what it is we are doing.

[PosterChild]

57. Bunk. When a criminal is ...

...forcefully taken into custody he is not being "assulted". That's because assult is a moral category and arresting a criminal is not an unjustice. To the contrary.

Murder is also a moral category: it is the unjust taking of a human life. If a death is not an injustice then it is not a murder.

By asking us to have the "courage" to call capital punishment murder, you are asking us to have the "courage" to adopt your moral stance.

That's a pretty cheap trick. Sorry, you'll have to do better than that.

[Judi Lynn]

40. I would think that covers it. Just say no to murder. n/t

[LanternWaste]

62. I imagine many people define civilized as little more than degrees of difference from barbarism.

I imagine many people define civilized as little more than degrees of difference from barbarism-- rationalizing the means rather than the ends as the only relevant difference.

Moot point though, as 'civilized' already has a formal definition none here get to change for our own convenience...

[Romeo.lima333]

64. yes it is defined and one of those definitions is "well organized or ordered"

such is our capitol punishment system is (with one or two "excptions&quot and with nitrogen it will be even more so.

[NutmegYankee]

19. It's actually a painless way to go.

People die in confined spaces from nitrogen purges and such because the body doesn't have a good feedback mechanism for lack of oxygen. What gives you that distress when you hold your breath is the CO2 building up in the blood and giving you a sensation called "air hunger". But in a high Nitrogen environment -85% or higher, you will exchange the CO2 just fine but not get the oxygen required. Often, the person passes out without warning. It's a known killer in industries that use nitrogen for testing.

[jtuck004]

6. Suicide Bag

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suicide_bag

...
A suicide bag, also known as an exit bag, is a device consisting of a large plastic bag with a drawcord used to commit suicide. It is usually used in conjunction with an inert gas like helium or nitrogen, which prevents the panic, sense of suffocation and struggling during unconsciousness (the hypercapnic alarm response) usually caused by the deprivation of oxygen in the presence of carbon dioxide. This method also makes the direct cause of death difficult to trace if the bag and gas canister are removed before the death is reported.[1][2][3] Right-to-die groups recommend this form of suicide as certain, fast, and painless, according to a 2007 study.
...

[GliderGuider]

9. This is the method my wife and I have chosen for when our times come. nt

[crim son]

18. After much research, it's mine as well. n/t

[Newest Reality]

26. Me too!

Helium looks like my choice.

[FLPanhandle]

22. I can't think of a better way to go.

It'll be my choice when life isn't worth continuing.

[NaturalHigh]

44. My thought exactly.

I think it's more commonly used with helium, but nitrogen is equally effective.

[rdking647]

7. its not really suffocation

by breathing pure nitrogen instead of standard air a person will become unconscious quickly without a feeling of suffocating. its similar to the effect on pilots at high altitude if they lose oxygen. rapid loss of consciousness followed by death. its probably a good method of inflicting capital punishment.

this doesnt imply im in favor the death penalty. im not

[procon]

8. History is full of psychopaths who came up with "revolutionary" ideas to kill people.

Just stop. Stop trying to be crazier than the brutes who committed the crimes and end the madness of state executions.

[GliderGuider]

10. I have such mixed feelings about this.

I have been a long-time proponent of inert-gas asphyxiation as a method of suicide.
But I am 100% implacably opposed to the death penalty under any and all circumstances, no matter what the method of execution.

[1StrongBlackMan]

11. Funny ...

a guy named "Christian" would term a state sponsored execution as "humane" ... I wonder if Christian can name another guy who was executed by the state? Hint for Christian: This person's father, reportedly had a spokesman impart onto his followers: "Thou Shall Not Kill."

[mike_c]

12. "the best thing we've come up with since the start of executions by the government"

Not an especially high bar, mind you.

[IDemo]

13. Several years ago I worked in a facility where liquid nitrogen was used

It was routed into test chambers to chill electronic circuitry for test purposes. There were oxygen monitors on the wall all around to sound the alarm if a nitrogen leak occurred, which could result in an eventual blackout and death. You don't get groggy, you simply lose consciousness suddenly and had better get oxygen in your system very soon or it's over.

I recall that the oxygen meter normally read around 20.0 or 20.1 percent, and it didn't take more than a couple of points below that to send the emergency response crew running in.

[Thor_MN]

25. I recall working in a building that had a lab with 5 5 foot tall dewers of liquid Nitrogen

used for the GC Mass Spec instruments used in the Organic lab. I worked in the Inorganic lab, but I seriously doubt the tightwad owner of the company would had shelled out for O2 sensors. He owned the building privately and the company paid rent with the first pennies in the door. If you needed supplies, you had to justify buying a case of anything, "Couldn't you get by with 2 now and order more next month?" Even if a case of ten was the same price as 4 individual...

[S_B_Jackson]

58. LOL....

would the employees have referred to your tightwad owner as Stevie Boom-Boom?

If so, I worked for the same outfit's lab in TX.

[Thor_MN]

59. That's funny.

We were coworkers. Maybe not at the same time, I was late 80's to mid 90's. I talked the lab here into buying its first Windows PC. By the time I left, I was doing only data processing for CLP and custom reports instead of analysis of metals and other inorganics. We had a crew of some really smart people who were too stupid to realize how underpaid we were. I shifted to IT and never looked back. Within a year I was making over 40% more, one could say I was earning at a faster pace.

[S_B_Jackson]

60. Worked there

from 1993-1999, started in Organic Prep transitioned into accounting work. Agree about the intelligence and talents of the people in the lab, was best buddies with the IT guy in Houston one of the nicest and smartest people I've ever met. I think we knew about being underpaid, but there was a tremendous loyalty amongst the non-management employees. I've never worked any place before or since that was as stress-filled.

We always knew when someone had either tendered their two weeks, or mentally made the decision to do so - you could tell as soon as they walked in the door in the morning - they were smiling, and you could see their happiness in their posture and the way they walked. As a rather infamous "i've had it!" manifesto that got emailed globally to everyone in the company put it, "I've never heard of anyone who left XXXX and did worse....."

[yurbud]

14. I still think we should give solar a chance.

[DeSwiss]

32. It'll never catch on.....

- For one thing you can't execute at night.....

[yurbud]

37. au contraire! It would just be much slower, so even more likely to win over cons

[blkmusclmachine]

38. ^This.^

[Trillo]

15. Wow. I can add another method of suicide to the tools I have in my garage.

Who knew?

[Hoppy]

16. I think Christian should try it out and demonstrate to everyone that it works.

[Alkene]

17. Perhaps it could be named after him, like the guillotine

"...Dr. Joseph-Ignace Guillotin proposed that the French government adopt a gentler method of execution."
"...Guillotin argued that decapitation by a lightning-quick machine would be more humane and egalitarian than sword and axe beheadings, which were often botched."
"The device claimed its first official victim in April 1792, and quickly became known as the 'guillotine'..."

8 Things You May Not Know About the Guillotine
http://www.history.com/news/history-lists/8-things-you-may-not-know-about-the-guillotine


Nitrogen hypoxia, or the "Christian." Ironic and creepy.

[FLPanhandle]

20. No doubt the most humane way to go.

When I'm old, this would be my method to go out.

[anotojefiremnesuka]

21. Why not Zyklon B?

What Sick fucks!

[winstars]

39. +1,000,000,000,000

[the_sly_pig]

23. "Christian Execution Advocate" or "Christian Supports fancy new Government Execution Method"

I find that ironic.

[xocet]

24. Ohio Replaces Lethal Injection With Humane New Head-Ripping-Off Machine

"I believe it's revolutionary," would apply to the above too, but neither are good.

[stone space]

30. Exactly!

[longship]

34. Obligatory response.

I posted the same in another thread earlier today.

The Onion gets it.

R&K for this post alone.

[IADEMO2004]

27. Fuck why not helium? Then you can laugh at their funny voice.

sell tickets make some revenue for the state. Great on youtube.

Too many sick people rushing to kill.

Good Christian government for you.

[840high]

28. You're right - "too many

sick people rushing to kill" - I have no problem wit them paying the price for those killings.

[LanternWaste]

63. Many sub-literate half-wits pretend to posses absolute knowledge of what that price should be.

Many sub-literate half-wits pretend to posses absolute knowledge of what that price should be.

[Romeo.lima333]

43. separation of church and state

[BlueJazz]

29. I don't "DO" Murder. Pack of disgusting primitives.

[DeSwiss]

33. K&R

[jpak]

36. Teh Jesus says OK

not

[Romeo.lima333]

42. he also said to render unto ceasar that which is ceasar's and i know that he used taxes as an

example but he spoke in allegory so taxes could mean anything

[jpak]

46. Yeah - the Holy N2 is cheap and the renderth of Holy Death Taxes is a pittance

and without sin

yup

[Sunlei]

45. how freaking goolish! some american named -Christian- studies nazi methods to kill people!

[yurbud]

47. We need to humane but honest methods like shooting someone in the head

all of our methods from the 20th century through today are about making executions more humane for the audience.

No blood to see, so it doesn't seem like you are doing anything brutal--even though some like electrocution are far more painful than a bullet to the head or a properly done hanging (not that I'm actually advocating either).

If you are going to do an execution, at least be honest about it.

[whatthehey]

48. This would enshrine the canard about revenge however

As a DP proponent on the sole basis of recidivism (lives lost to previously convicted killers never seem to matter to most people expressing the most concern over killing in this debate) I truly could not care if irredeemable killers are executed by a heart attack brought upon by the overconsumption of foie gras and champagne and sexual overexertion. Dead is the important part as nobody has ever been executed and killed again, which cannot be said for rehabilitation, treatment, mental institutions, imprisonment, solitary or supermax, or indeed anything else. How they die is not that important, and this method is cheap, easy and painless. Sounds promising.

[GliderGuider]

50. The National Razor, perhaps?

There is a lot to be said for honesty.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

49. And the irony of the sponsoring representative's last name was lost on many a good Oklahoman. nt

[stone space]

51. "I can't breathe". (nt)

[FiveGoodMen]

52. Reportedly, though, that's not how it would feel.

[stone space]

53. So give cops on the beat a nitrogen dispencer.

Problem solved.

[FiveGoodMen]

54. First, I'm not in favor of the death penalty

Second, we were discussing methods for executing those who have been sentenced to be executed, not cops taking the law into their own hands.

Don't wantonly change the subject and then roll your eyes at me.

[harun]

56. I always wondered why they didn't just use Carbon Monoxide. It does put

you to sleep and then you are done.

What an odd adjective to use, revolutionary, for a method to kill a human being.

[srican69]

61. CO is expensive & toxic . N2 is neither.

100 ppm CO costs around 10 bucks. Higher concentrations are more expensive. N2 is plentiful and pure nitrogen is cheap.

[harun]

65. It's not expensive, you just use exhaust fumes

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_monoxide_poisoning#Holocaust

[NutmegYankee]

68. Exhaust fumes have a noticeable odor and would cause panic.

Most people that are killed in confined space accidents never had a clue something was wrong.

[roamer65]

66. Christian should actually be a Christian.

He should stop the killing.

[lovuian]

67. Gas chambers where have I heard that before

WWII camps