Poison gas, firing squads: US approves more execution methods

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Al Jazeera

Outgoing Trump administration paves way for additional methods of executing prisoners sentenced to death.

28 Nov 2020

The outgoing administration of President Donald Trump is paving the way for additional methods of executing prisoners who have been sentenced to death in the United States.

The Justice Department is quietly amending its execution protocols, no longer requiring federal death sentences to be carried out by lethal injection and clearing the way to use other methods like firing squads and poison gas.

The amended rule, published on Friday in the Federal Register, allows the US government to conduct executions by lethal injection or use “any other manner prescribed by the law of the state in which the sentence was imposed”.

A number of states allow other methods of execution, including electrocution, inhaling nitrogen gas or death by firing squad.

Read more: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/11/28/new-rule-could-allow-gas-firing-squads-for-us-executions

[elleng]

1. Appears NOT limited to FEDERAL death sentences, if the rule includes:

'or use “any other manner prescribed by the law of the state in which the sentence was imposed”.'

[mr_lebowski]

4. He only has any say in the Federal executions so not sure what you mean ...

States have their own rules, this is just saying the Federal executions can use the state rules.

That seems to me like it's probably not going to stand up in court though. The state where the sentence was imposed is not really relevant in a federal case. I mean, it COULD be where the crime took place (and only that one state) but so many federal crimes are multi-state by nature, and you could tried in a totally different state anyway.

[elleng]

70. I agree, which is why I mentioned the apparent inclusion of states' execution plans, in the OP.

Confusing.

[truthisfreedom]

2. Nitrogen gas should be the standard.

There is so sensation of suffocation, it’s painless and foolproof. Air is 80% nitrogen so our bodies react to it normally. You just go to sleep and die.

[mr_lebowski]

3. I was going to say, Nitrogen gas doesn't sound bad ... in fact ... why not nitrous?

100% mix of nitrous for awhile I'm sure will put you out for good too.

Helium works as well.

[truthisfreedom]

5. Sadly, there's a bit of a helium shortage now that the gov't doesn't store it.

[marble falls]

7. How about a big giant foot? Or an anvil drop?

[Judi Lynn]

9. Falling bank safe? n/t

[marble falls]

28. Bet there's some 'interest' in that bank safe idea. Just make sure it's from Acme Safe!

[ahoysrcsm]

81. Too messy. Think of the janitor that has to clean that up.

[marble falls]

82. Think of the guy who has to clean up after a firing squad or after electrocution ...

These are the real deal

Search "botched executions in the US". I'm not posting any of them because they are truly mind-bending.

[mitch96]

31. Agree.. sedative and nitrogen gas.. nite nite... Then again it's too simple... No million dollar

"feasibility" study's to pad your buddies pockets with the promise of a kick back, eh? cynical me...
m

[marble falls]

35. We could hire a "Sadist in Chief" and come up with some real crowd pleases, I bet!

[mitch96]

38. Nero plays while Rome burns and all those analogies come to mind... nt

[marmar]

43. Or maybe no executions at all?

[forgotmylogin]

56. I've also read that of controlled hypoxia. (Same thing?)

No gas necessary, just a sealed chamber where oxygen can be removed. (Perhaps this is the same thing? Flooding a chamber with nitrogen to push out the oxygen?)

They subject fighter pilots to it so they are used to low-oxygen atmospheres and emergencies and they can learn to recognize the effects and try to work through a crisis.

A journalist on a (BBC?) video experienced it and said it was oddly euphoric and not painful before they stopped the process so he wouldn't die. They said a subject during execution would feel tired and drift calmly to unconsciousness well before death.

(I'm not for death penalty in general, but this sounded like the closest method to "humane".)

[marble falls]

6. End all death sentences. All this talk of preferences for methods is unseemly.

[marmar]

44. This.

[polmaven]

45. Exactly right!

In my opinion death sentences should be completely illegal! The government has no more of a right to kill than does anyone else. It is, in my opinion, murder in either case!

[marble falls]

48. State sanctioned murder is murder. I don't get how they don't get it.

[polmaven]

60. Could not be more correct!

[PatSeg]

50. Exactly

The whole concept of state sanctioned murder is unsettling and uncivilized. Over 100 countries have abolished the death penalty. We used to be a world leader in human rights for the most part, yet we still engage in this barbaric form on punishment. How can anyone condone this in the 21st century?

[Major Nikon]

52. Even people right here on DU want it

If you can't convince even the most liberal people in America of the senselessness of the death penalty, then there isn't much hope of abolishing it.

[marble falls]

62. All the people, even a majority here on DU want the death penalty? Not what I'm seeing...

And not so much for the American public. In some states like New York, less than 40% favor it. Even in states that do, the numbers aren't more than 65% for it - and mainly rural, red states.

https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/facts-and-research/public-opinion-polls

Public opinion polls show that support for the death penalty is currently near historic lows after peaking in 1994 and declining over the last 25 years.

[Major Nikon]

65. I'm not saying a majority here on DU

I'm saying there's no shortage of people here who want it. Public opinion polls don't mean that much when it's mostly a state issue. The best you can hope for is the blue states who have abolished or effectively abolished it already anyway. There's something which can be done at the federal level such as limiting law enforcement funds to states which still have the DP, and abolishing it at the federal level, but that doesn't happen without a clear consensus within our own party.

[marble falls]

53. I know how I feel about being in the exclusive club with Russia, China, Korea, Sudan, Syria, ...

... Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Iran, Egypt, Angola, and Afghanistan: ashamed.

[PatSeg]

61. Yes

And we have the bloody nerve to lecture other countries about human rights. There also was a time when we were number one in education worldwide. When I was a kid, there was no expense too great for our schools and I took that for granted at the time.

We were never a perfect nation, but until recent years we were evolving. I don't know when we started to backslide, but I'm thinking it was during the Reagan years. Sadly after Eisenhower, it seems that every republican administration was responsible in some way for our decline. That is probably a bit too simplistic, being as a people, we have changed as well and our elected officials would be a reflection of that.

[marble falls]

63. It may be simplistic, but certanly it describes what happened.

[PatSeg]

67. Funny how you don't

see it all while it is happening on a day-to-day basis. Everyone was so distracted with their runaway consumerism, they stopped paying attention to current events and schools stopped teaching kids about government and world affairs. It didn't happen overnight, it just feels like it sometimes.

[marble falls]

78. It's about diverting attention. Look a squirrel!

[Solly Mack]

66. I agree.

End the DP.

[LymphocyteLover]

77. seriously

[nebby70]

8. ah yes -- the pro life party ....

... isn't it refreshing they never seem to have a solution beyond inflicting harm ...

[The Genealogist]

15. The pro-life party is also the eye for an eye party

Of course it is not just simply an eye for an eye. I think it gives them a real jolt when someone is put to death or physically punished severely.

[IsItJustMe]

85. Someone from a higher plain once said,

"An eye for an eye, and everyone goes blind."

The same people who supposedly want to save the unborn babies are the same people who just loves them some death penalty and the same people who refuse to wear a mask. I guess it's alright to infect the babies as long as it don't interfere with their supposed constitutional rights. Tortured pretzel logic, If you ask me.

[LiberalLovinLug]

76. Exactly.

I was going to bring this up if no one else did.
The Pro Life party sure is obsessed with all the ways you can implement State sanctioned premeditated murder.

[no_hypocrisy]

10. Why? Wouldn't Joe Biden's DOJ simply re-amend the proposed regulations

and ban those practices?

[WhiskeyGrinder]

22. There are several federal executions scheduled before Biden takes office, including the first

Last edited Sat Nov 28, 2020, 09:53 AM - Edit history (1)

woman in decades. The cruelty is the point.

[marble falls]

29. Lurid headlines draws the morbid like flies. They'll be hanging them from gibbets as trophies next.

[bucolic_frolic]

11. Greenlight for concentration camps, just add collectivism

Roots in 1930s emerging Nazi state revealed

[marble falls]

30. Absolutely right on the money. They have no concept of going too far. State sanctioned murder is ...

... is how it starts.

[marble falls]

46. Raw meat for the gunhuggers, because the death penalty is given to minorities in disproportionate ..

... numbers.

[vlyons]

12. Make America Cruel Again

Such a cruel and vindictive person

[gab13by13]

13. Making me watch reruns of Trump rallies,

while in prison would do me in.

[sinkingfeeling]

14. Headline is wrong: not the US approving this, just MF45.

[marble falls]

32. Good point. He's throwing raw meat to his followers, it has nothing to do with the nation ...

... past couching it in our name.

[rickyhall]

16. I'd like to get back the good old days if there were any.

40 years of repub oppression has worn me out, things never seem to get any better. Trump might be dragged out of the white house but the fascists remain in Congress.

[KPN]

17. Good News for Modern Man!

I am so sick and tired of this small minded prick and his hypocritical evangelical Christian supporters. January 20 can’t come soon enough.

[Vinca]

18. Cheer up - there's still the possibility Trump could be found guilty of treason.

Then we can surprise Don and tell him we've brought back the guillotine. It'll be a pay-per-view event so he'll love it.

[FailureToCommunicate]

24. Guillotine is far too quick for Trumps YEARS of crimes. I say strap him to a

potty chair and force him to listen to Up With People recordings while watching Doris Day movies...

Or... just keel haul him.

[sir pball]

47. Scaphism, please.

It's a mythical Persian method, but I'd be open to trying it out for realsies. I won't give any details here; it makes the Brazen Bull look downright humane.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scaphism

[3Hotdogs]

19. --- and of course. Carlin to the rescue. How to balance the national budget.

Put executions on pay for view TV.

Charge $100 per tv to watch the warden strap a couple of battery cables to the guy's nuts. Charge another $50 to be in the lottery to be the one who gets to call in "Go!" to the execution chamber.

[Demonaut]

20. he ain't leaving, he'll stage a coup and he'll use these methods to get rid of the opposition

us

[marble falls]

33. Oh, he'll be leaving all right. His crap may linger a bit longer.

[twodogsbarking]

21. The United States

is very, very good at killing people. We excel.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

23. Abolish the death penalty.

[3825-87867]

25. Barbaric!

We have all these "wonderful" new (used to be supposedly attempted humane and/or "painless&quot ways to legally kill people yet a terminally ill person must suffer sometimes months or years rather than the Republicans allow euthanasia.

God Damn Hypocrites!

Barbaric!

[Throck]

34. How about death by Trump Rally?

Put em in a closed room with Trump tapes for 2 hours.

[3825-87867]

36. Do we HAVE to open it?

Don't for get the lock(s)! Now where did I put that key...

2 hours -24 hours - a few days - maybe we can't tell time? maybe something else came up? Or maybe the memory lapse is kicking in?

[Ziggysmom]

37. Capital punishment is barbaric and applied unfairly

Per Amnesty International:

Jurors

Jurors in many US death penalty cases must be 'death eligible'. This means the prospective juror must be willing to convict the accused knowing that a sentence of death is a possibility.

This results in a jury biased in favour of the death penalty, since no one who opposes the death penalty is likely to be accepted as a juror.

Lawyers

There's much concern in the USA that the legal system doesn't always provide poor accused people with good lawyers.

Out of all offenders who are sentenced to death, three quarters of those who are allocated a legal aid lawyer can expect execution, a figure that drops to a quarter if the defendant could afford to pay for a lawyer.

[Major Nikon]

54. From a purely statistical standpoint, the system guarantees innocent people will be executed

The standard of guilt in the US isn't absolute and never will be. You will hear people right here on DU say they are OK with the death penalty so long as we can be assured the person is guilty, which is impossible. To support their flawed argument they will point to the worst sort of killers as if an appeal to emotion somehow makes their fallacy less so.

Even in some kind of fantasy world if one were to imagine only the guilty are put to death, you still have the fact it's applied disparately and it serves zero useful purpose to society or even the victims.

[soryang]

74. I couldn't agree more

I don't understand how people don't get this. They just don't understand how the criminal justice system really works.

[Major Nikon]

80. Because people want their pound of flesh no matter what

Other countries have just managed to figure out that attitude accomplishes nothing and is counterproductive to a civilized society.

[Bigredhunk]

39. -

Jeez. I wanted a THE RUNNING MAN game show. What a bore this clown is.

[NurseJackie]

40. Guillotines? He forgot guillotines.

[marble falls]

83. Don't forget the flaying - drawing and quartering just misses that little sonething special ...

... without the flaying!!!

[Paladin]

49. Firing squads: Jackoff material for deranged children. Like trump. (nt)

[PatSeg]

51. You know, I wonder if this is a jab

at Joe Biden who does not believe in the death penalty and has said that as president, he would work to end executions. That would be so like Trump to do this out of spite.

[Scalded Nun]

55. Surprised he is not holding out for strapping folks to cannon barrels

[kimbutgar]

57. He better be careful about this as when MF45's crimes are fully exposed one of those methods might

Be used on him.

[Hotler]

58. Thank Bill Barr and his far, far right christian interpretation of the old testament.

That whole pro-life/pro-death penalty thing he has going on. he is one of the leaders of the attempted fascist coup.

[BusyBeingBest]

59. Psychos.

[JohnnyRingo]

64. Poison gas? I think that's a great idea!

We could put the death row prisoners in some kind of work camp until their execution, then lead them en masse into a shower building that fills with poison gas once they're inside. Look at all the money we'll save over using bullets with firing squads!

I think there may be an old patent on that though.

[roamer65]

71. So, we can gas the Dumps after conviction for treason.

[BobTheSubgenius]

68. Hang draw and quarter not on the table?

Defenestration?

[J Magarac]

69. Why not hanging? Isn't that the most traditional method? The bastards! n/t

[DemoTex]

72. Crucifixion?

[joanbarnes]

73. are we great yet?

[Traildogbob]

75. Why not crucifixion?

That seemed like a cool way to kill. Good enough for the savior, the last one God sent, why not this orange one.
The cross has a completely new meaning now. Why KaaLee MagaNinnie and other Christians are so proud to wear that lower case “t” around their neck. It stands for tRump. If he is re-elected the cross will become a capital “T” to all evilgelicals world wide. That top section played no roll in the crucifixion any way.
After a conviction of treason by the liberal Jew lovers we can crucify Trump on a giant “T” in his honor, pay per view, on a hill, (capital Hill) in DC. If he arises in 3 days, well, we are fucked.

[LudwigPastorius]

79. I noticed that "total lack of flattery" isn't one of the new approved methods.

Because, that's the one that Trump is most afraid of...

[Danmel]

84. He's like Cruella DeVille

https://m.

[hay rick]

86. Another band aid for his fragile ego.

Trump wants to be a macho, macho man!

[Xolodno]

87. What! No impaling through the anus?

Kidding aside, the Death Penalty should be abolished.

The massive amount of money spent on court appeals could be better spent on identifying potential sicko's ahead of time and keeping an eye out.