Kenneth Eugene Smith’s execution would be the nation’s first using nitrogen gas.
Lawyers for a spiritual adviser to an Alabama inmate scheduled to be executed with nitrogen gas next month said in a complaint filed Wednesday that restrictions on how close the adviser can get to the inmate in the death chamber are “hostile to religion.”
The Rev. Jeff Hood, who plans to enter the death chamber to minister to Kenneth Eugene Smith, said the Alabama Department of Corrections asked him to sign a form acknowledging the risks and agreeing to stay 3 feet (0.9 meters) away from Smith’s gas mask. Hood, a death penalty opponent, said that shows there is a risk to witnesses attending the execution. He said the restrictions would also interfere with his ability to minister to Smith before he is put to death.
“They’ve asked me to sign a waiver, which to me speaks to the fact that they’re already concerned that things could go wrong,” Hood said in a telephone interview.
Smith’s execution would be the nation’s first using nitrogen gas. The nitrogen is planned be administered through the gas mask placed over Smith’s nose and mouth while he is strapped to a gurney in the death chamber normally used for lethal injections.
That’s arguably the most humane way to do it though.
Granted, I think the death penalty is wrong in 99.9% of cases but if it needs to be done then it should be humane.
And for the 0.01% of cases I’m taking about, it should be reserved only for people who demonstrate that their continued existence would harm other people.
I lived in fear for 20 years that my grandpa would get out of prison and kill me and my family for putting him in there in the first place, and he absolutely would have too.
A death sentence would have saved my entire family decades of mental anguish.
Every 5 years we had to contest his parole hearing just to sit on edge for the next 5 years while we waited for the next one.