The Problem With Execution by Nitrogen Gas

In a press release earlier this week The United Nations Office on Human Rights condemned the execution of convicted hitman Kenneth Smith by nitrogen gas as “outrageous” and amounted to “State sanctioned torture.”  The U.N “experts” noted that:

“Smith reportedly took over 20 minutes to die. Witnesses to the execution said that Smith remained conscious for several minutes as he writhed and convulsed on the gurney, gasping for air and pulling on the restraints, shaking violently in prolonged agony.”

Based on that description, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters Friday that the White House found the the use of nitrogen gas “very troubling.” She added that President Joe Biden has “broad concern about the death penalty.”  Not so broad one guesses to prevent his Attorney General from seeking the death penalty for Payton Gendron, who murdered ten people at a Buffalo Grocery Store in 2022.  Smith only beat and stabbed a woman to death for $1,000.

As Debra Saunders notes in the Las Vegas Review-Journal “The beltway has shown less interest in Elizabeth Sennett, who in 1988 was found dead in her Colbert County home, after she was stabbed eight times in the chest and once on each side of her neck, according to documents.”

The outrage about the use of nitrogen gas is that death penalty opponents won’t be able to block its use, like they have done for decades with lethal injection drugs. The other problem for them is that it is painless. While the U.N. “experts” claimed that witnesses watched Smith gag and writhe for 20 minutes, other witnesses said that he convulsed for two minutes before blacking out. I’m guessing that his mask leaked, allowing him to get some oxygen.  The fix for that is to put murderers in a sealed room and pump out the air while pumping in nitrogen gas.  The murderer will fall asleep.

Saunders points out that our Foundation “has been advocating for nitrogen-gas execution for years because it’s painless, it doesn’t require needles, and it doesn’t require medical personnel, who can be threatened with losing their licenses. And nitrogen gas is readily available.”  You can get it at Home Depot.  Another plus is that the gas is not poison like the Cyanide used in gas chambers.  Seventy-eight percent of the earth’s atmosphere is nitrogen gas.

Saunders also wrote how:

“I witnessed the lethal injection of Robert Lee Massie on San Quentin’s Death Row. Massie killed a 48-year-old woman in 1965 and was sentenced to death. He was paroled in 1978, after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned death penalty laws. The following year Massie killed a 68-year-old man during a robbery.  If anything, it was a low-drama event, as Massie had stopped his lawyers from contesting his execution. I did not see evidence of pain.”

Several months ago Smith emphatically demanded that he be executed by nitrogen gas rather than lethal injection. When Alabama and the courts acquiesced, he then argued that doing so would subject him to an experimental process that might cause him agony.  I am surprised that the Pope has not yet denounced the process.  

Death penalty opponents are unable to prevent the use of nitrogen gas, and the liberal media will lose interest in covering executions that are devoid of agony and drama. Watch for other death penalty states to adopt it.