Transcript
Alabama suffocated a man to death in a gas chamber tonight after starving him so he wouldn't choke on his own vomit as they did it. And this was deemed perfectly legal by multiple courts in the vaunted American legal system.
That's what happens when you value institutions over people.
Link for more info: https://www.reuters.com/legal/alabama-prepares-carry-out-first-execution-by-nitrogen-asphyxiation-2024-01-25/
The method wasn't untested, it's been done plenty before. The specific tools they used to do it were moronic and they didn't fully understand how to do it properly. Basically they just didn't do their homework.
There's also the difference between "painless" and "easy to watch". Lethal injection looks humane because they inject the person with a paralytic, so regardless of what happens it looks "peaceful".
One of the drugs sometimes used (succinylcholine chloride) is fucking terrifying, because it's a paralytic with no anesthetic effect. Given alone a person under its effects is aware of what's going on while paralyzed and unable to breath.
Christ that's scary af.
Medically it's generally used to intubate someone in an emergency if the patient is conscious, seizing, etc. If the patient is aware, it's given in conjunction with something for sedation like a benzo.
In an execution it's given after a barbiturate for sedation , then followed with potassium chloride to stop the heart ... assuming mistakes aren't made, or something goes wrong.
That's fair. I'm not up to date on all the specifics of this particular incident.
Them basically "winging" it, kinda fits.