Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by mrpg on Friday March 16 2018, @02:02AM   Printer-friendly
from the fundamental-states-of-matter dept.

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


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 4, Informative) by The Mighty Buzzard on Friday March 16 2018, @04:06AM (1 child)

    Erm... CO is not undetectable by the human body. It gives me one hell of a headache even in quite survivable concentrations. Try sleeping in a house that uses an old, poorly adjusted Dearborn heater for heating in the winter and you'll know exactly what I mean.

    Likewise, nitrogen narcosis is not caused by lack of oxygen or excess of nitrogen. It's caused by breathing most any gas at higher pressure than your body can deal with.

    --
    My rights don't end where your fear begins.
    Starting Score:    1  point
    Moderation   +2  
       Interesting=1, Informative=1, Total=2
    Extra 'Informative' Modifier   0  
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   4  
  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by Immerman on Friday March 16 2018, @04:41PM

    by Immerman (3985) on Friday March 16 2018, @04:41PM (#653663)

    Quite so - I got similar results designing and testing alcohol camping stoves without enough ventilation. That's low exposure though - breathe freely in an oxygen-free atmosphere and you have only a matter of seconds before you lose consciousness - your lungs actually end up working in reverse as oxygen in your blood diffuses into the air in your lungs. You'd last a lot longer holding your breath, but then you'll feel feel like you're suffocating as the CO2 builds up. In a CO atmosphere you'd almost certainly pass out before developing more than a twinge of a headache.