Jan 30, 2024 06:19 PM
REFERENCE (wikipedia): Execution of Kenneth Eugene Smith
I’m an anesthesiologist. Kenneth Smith’s execution by nitrogen gas was far from ‘textbook’
https://www.statnews.com/2024/01/29/kenn...e-alabama/
EXCERPTS: ... I wanted to be one of those witnesses. I applied to attend as a member of the media, but I was not allowed to watch it firsthand. Alabama Department of Corrections granted me permission to be near the prison, but without a mechanism of direct observation, so I decided not to attend. Instead, I learned the details of Smith’s death by the accounting of the few who were there.
Executions are highly curated events. Direct witnesses to the actual execution must surrender their cellphones, paper, pen, and watch. They can use only memory to record what they see. These policies make it easier for the state to make extraordinary counterclaims about execution events.
[...] There is much I don’t know about what happened. Instead of scientific and medical details of the execution, Alabama chose to share utterly meaningless dietary specifics. No matter. The state, having produced a corpse, declared the execution to have gone exactly as planned and even described it unironically as “textbook.” As no one anywhere in the world had used this technique for execution, I wonder: Where might I find such a textbook?
[...] Alabama claimed in advance that the nitrogen — administered by gas as Smith wore a mask — would lead to unconsciousness in seconds, and death would rapidly follow. Witness accounts, however, tell us that Smith convulsed and gasped with eyes open in terror for minutes. At one point, he was apparently dry heaving and may have vomited.
And that’s as much as we know. The viewing curtain was closed to witnesses before the official time of death, raising the unsettling question of how long it took for Smith to die — some say 22 minutes, though it may have been as long as 28 minutes. Assuming these statements are accurate, which seems to be the case, the state’s claim that this went exactly to plan makes one thing clear: Its intent here was torture... (MORE - missing details)
I’m an anesthesiologist. Kenneth Smith’s execution by nitrogen gas was far from ‘textbook’
https://www.statnews.com/2024/01/29/kenn...e-alabama/
EXCERPTS: ... I wanted to be one of those witnesses. I applied to attend as a member of the media, but I was not allowed to watch it firsthand. Alabama Department of Corrections granted me permission to be near the prison, but without a mechanism of direct observation, so I decided not to attend. Instead, I learned the details of Smith’s death by the accounting of the few who were there.
Executions are highly curated events. Direct witnesses to the actual execution must surrender their cellphones, paper, pen, and watch. They can use only memory to record what they see. These policies make it easier for the state to make extraordinary counterclaims about execution events.
[...] There is much I don’t know about what happened. Instead of scientific and medical details of the execution, Alabama chose to share utterly meaningless dietary specifics. No matter. The state, having produced a corpse, declared the execution to have gone exactly as planned and even described it unironically as “textbook.” As no one anywhere in the world had used this technique for execution, I wonder: Where might I find such a textbook?
[...] Alabama claimed in advance that the nitrogen — administered by gas as Smith wore a mask — would lead to unconsciousness in seconds, and death would rapidly follow. Witness accounts, however, tell us that Smith convulsed and gasped with eyes open in terror for minutes. At one point, he was apparently dry heaving and may have vomited.
And that’s as much as we know. The viewing curtain was closed to witnesses before the official time of death, raising the unsettling question of how long it took for Smith to die — some say 22 minutes, though it may have been as long as 28 minutes. Assuming these statements are accurate, which seems to be the case, the state’s claim that this went exactly to plan makes one thing clear: Its intent here was torture... (MORE - missing details)
