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Alabama condemned for nitrogen gas execution: ‘They intended to torture him’
(www.theguardian.com)
this post was submitted on 26 Jan 2024
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And even if he was in a pod where the nitrogen level rose, making his death as physically painless as possible (or so we believe), he still knows he is going to die. That's torture. It should not be legal.
I disagree that a painless execution is torture, even if I understand where you're coming from.
My objection to capital punishment isn't because I don't believe some people deserve death.
My objection is simply that innocent people are convicted all the time, but at least unjust incarceration is situation that can be reversed.
Psychological torture is still torture. Federal agents/Secret police/Military/etc. in many countries have been known to do all sorts of painless torture methods such as sleep deprivation and constant loud music. And then there are things like waterboarding, where it is almost certain that you won't die, but you will feel like you're drowning the entire time. It is torture even if you know you're going to live through the waterboarding.
Christopher Hitchens was waterboarded and wrote about how it was torture.
Torture does not have to be painful or even involve physical contact.
I wholeheartedly agree, no-one needs to be water-boarded to be tortured. There is a number of tortures which aren't publicly considered 'torture', such as isolation but when used for a long time should really be considered a torture. The other thing is that there are a number of things which are not considered by themselves as torture but when used in conjunction (together) are so heinous that they should be considered torture. For example, sleep deprivation AND isolation from friends/family AND physical assault.
The other thing to mention is that torture should be considered as something which is dependent on the victim. If an army corporal has their fingers cut off, then most people would say that is most definitely torture. It is most certainly abusive and wrong. But lets say, an ordinary person who isn't trained to resist torture is also tortured - for example, they are deprived from their rights to live as they usually do, love as they usually do, and act as they usually would - this is also torture. Just because no-one chopped fingers off doesn't mean that torture hasn't been committed.