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/
Bluntly, choking on your own vomit is probably a really terrible way to die. If I recall correctly he was put in a chamber where the majority of the air in the room was replaced with nitrous oxide, asphyxiating the subject. If he had choked on his vomit, it would have been closer to drowning than suffocating in the manner that was intended.
By asphyxiating him in this way, his suffering was effectively eliminated during the execution; but if he had vomited and choked on it.... Well, I don't know if you've ever found yourself short of air in a body of water, but it's a pretty unpleasant experience. It only gets worse as you get closer to death when drowning (from what I've heard/understood from people who have nearly drown).
The intention of not giving him food so he didn't vomit, was a humane decision, not intended for additional suffering and cruelty.
Twisting the intent like this is doing a disservice to the entire process. You can dislike capital punishment all you want, and I may even agree that it shouldn't be done, but the fact is, this statement is misleading at best. I'm all for a healthy discussion on it, but let's not conflate the issue with these misconceptions.
He took 22 minutes or so to die. Guards in the room said it was awful to watch. His suffering was INCREASED by using this untested method. But then that was surely the point...
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.