Oklahoma plans to start carrying out executions with nitrogen gas, a method that has never been used in the U.S. but that some states have already approved amid difficulties with lethal injections.
At a news conference Wednesday, Oklahoma Atty. Gen. Mike Hunter and Corrections Director Joe M. Allbaugh said that over the next few months the state would develop a protocol for using nitrogen.
[...] In recent years, Oklahoma and other states have struggled to obtain the drugs needed for lethal injections, the most common execution method but one that has increasingly faced scrutiny.
In 2015, a state court put a moratorium on executions in Oklahoma after a series of botched executions, including one in which an inmate convulsed for 43 minutes before dying and another in which the wrong drug was administered.
Oklahoma is poised to become the first state to use nitrogen gas in executions
(Score: 5, Informative) by KilroySmith on Friday March 16 2018, @02:30AM (1 child)
This isn't narcosis. It's simple suffocation, but without the sensation of suffocation caused by excess CO2 in the blood. Using a breathing mask, you go from breathing air to breathing pure nitrogen in a single breath; consciousness lasts only seconds after that, and death occurs in minutes. All without any sensation, simply loss of consciousness followed by brain death. It's so easy and peaceful that it's a process of choice for those choosing suicide at the end of life.
Wikipedia has a good article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inert_gas_asphyxiation [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Friday March 16 2018, @02:36AM
Man, that's a good one.