Cruel and Unusual?

Originally written 26 Jan 24.

“If at first you don’t succeed…”

Alabama is one of five states that still allow the death penalty. In 2002, Kenneth Smith had exhausted his pleas and was directed to the Alabama Death Chamber to receive an injection of the last available “lethal drug cocktail”. No one manufactured it anymore.

After four hours of trying to find a vein and using up the last of the drug cocktail, Kenneth was still alive. What is an executioner to do? When Idaho ran out of lethal drug cocktails, it re-instituted the firing squad. Now there’s a fun way to execute a bad guy and in keeping with our beloved second amendment rights.

Maybe Alabama lacked good marksmen, because they settled on nitrogen asphyxiation to kill poor Kenneth last night.

The eighth amendment forbids “cruel and unusual punishment”. Alabama courts decided that asphyxiating someone is not “cruel and unusual”. I beg to differ.

When the human body does not ingest enough oxygen whether through overly strenuous exercise or when the door blows off an airliner in flight, it hurts. It hurts a lot.

Charlie Spalding was a top notch technician at Air Products. He could pipe or power anything and make it work. He was alone, monitoring one of the first liquid nitrogen food freezing tunnels in the labs one night. A gasket on the nitrogen vent pipe froze and burst. Nitrogen filled the area. Before Charlie knew it, he passed out and died from the same nitrogen asphyxia that Alabama used on Kenneth Smith.

The guys who found Charlie said that his face and body was contorted into spasms of pain. Charlie might rebut that Alabama court that allowed nitrogen asphyxiation under the eighth amendment.

How about the guillotine, Alabama? It’s quick and works every time.

By Ed Dufton