Alan Miller shook and trembled on gurney after becoming second person to be executed by controversial technique
Alabama has carried out the second execution in the US using the controversial method of nitrogen gas, an experimental technique for humans that veterinarians have deemed unacceptable in the US and Europe for the euthanasia of most animals.
Alan Eugene Miller, 59, was pronounced dead on Thursday evening at a south Alabama prison. The lethal method involves being strapped to a gurney, where a respirator mask is applied to the face and pure nitrogen piped in. The resulting oxygen deprivation will cause death by asphyxia.
Miller shook and trembled on the gurney for about two minutes with his body at times pulling against the restraints, followed by about six minutes of gasping breathing, according to the Associated Press.
Miller’s death is the latest in an extraordinary week in the US in which five condemned men in five states are set to be killed over six days. Three prisoners have already been executed – on Friday South Carolina killed Khalil Divine Black Sun Allah in its first execution in 13 years, then on Tuesday Texas killed Travis Mullis and Missouri put to death Marcellus Williams.
No. With the notable exception of rodents, animals generally can’t detect oxygen deficiency directly (though they may get loopy).
Nitrogen asphyxiation basically makes you loopy, then unconscious, then dead. It’s experientially equivalent to exposure to normal air at extremely high altitudes. Military pilots are often exposed to this (in a controlled manner) precisely because it’s so hard to recognize, and doesn’t induce fear. Like, epic levels of hard to recognize, as in “Hey Bob, it’s time to put your mask back on to keep you from dying!” Bob: snickers and clearly thinks this is a great joke, until the person straps his mask back on, and he realizes how serious the situation is
You can make a trough for a (non-starved) pig that constantly releases nitrogen gas (which it breathes as it’s eating). The pig puts his head in the trough to eat, then passes out from lack of oxygen (this pulling it’s snout out of the trough), then is like “what was I doing? Oh look, food…” …and goes right back to it, passing out again.
This is completely different from the reaction to carbon dioxide asphyxiation, which the body has sensors for, and induces all kinds of panic. Try the same trough experiment with a pig using carbon dioxide, and it will stay the fuck away from the evil trough of death.
You can watch Destin from Smarter Every Day almost die on camera* due to hypoxia.
I’ll go looking for the link.
Obviously watch the whole video but start at 5:27 (ends around 7:30) for the moment. Watching this freaks me the fuck out every time.
YT Link
*He was in a safe environment
Yeah. This is the thing.
Also so many instances of cave divers going loopy then dead in a matter of minutes. It’s astounding that it’s so easy to accidentally die from nitrogen but we just can’t seem to get the hang of not torturing people to death.
Holy shit. I assumed we would have minutes not seconds if a plane depressurized. I understand what that would freak you the fuck out.
That’s not what gets me, its watching him degrade and then not have the presence of mind to simply reenable his oxygen.
That triggers me super hard for some reason
Multiple reports from observers of this execution method: it’s horrible, they thrash around on the gurney and seem to suffer greatly
This guy: nuh uh.
They’re not doing it correctly. The person needs to be cooperative and able to follow instructions, and they need to be using a specific type of mask that vents their breath with the carbon dioxide out.
Yeah, I’m pretty sure most people aren’t going to cooperate in their own execution.
This isn’t like assisted suicide/euthanasia. These are, by definition, people being forced into this by the state. At least some portion of them are always going to be uncooperative.
Yeah. The suicide pods are a good example. There’s enough space in them that the person won’t experience CO2 buildup in the short amount of time it takes.
Yes, and they need to violate every human instinct and cooperate. They know this gas is there with the specific purpose to kill them against their will, it’s incredibly difficult to voluntarily breathe in that situation
No, they don’t need to cooperate. If you struggle and thrash, no matter how you die, you’ll endure the struggle and thrashing.
I apologize if I implied they should cooperate. Cooperation is necessary for the painlessness. But I believe they have the right to fight to their dying moment and that it is laudable to do so
Yeah, good luck getting someone to be cooperative and calmly following instructions while being murdered by the government in front of an audience 🙄
Precisely. Wonderful if you’ve got highly painful terminal cancer though!
True. Pretty fucked up how the proponents of state murder can’t see how those are fundamentally different situations.
That’s also why I’m being so active in this comments section; I don’t want people reading about compassionate euthenasia thinking “wait isn’t that how they torture people to death?” because it’s not unless you’re basically trying to use it that way. I’ve actually been briefly trained on what to do in an inert gas leak in some of the radiology safety modules for work because some of the imaging machinery uses inert gas and they literally tell you it’s super easy to accidentally die that way because by the time you’ve even noticed you’re almost dead.
You’re getting pushback here because you’re conflating two entirely different scenarios—capital punishment and assisted suicide—without clarifying that you understand the difference. I can understand what your intent might be but you’re using the same arguments that proponents of capital punishment are using to claim this is a good way to execute people.
It comes off as “no, these people aren’t suffering” instead of “it really sucks that these people are suffering, the arguments for it being humane don’t apply to this scenario and we should stop doing it” (which is what I want to believe you mean).
I got enough upvotes that I think most people understood. I’m sorry you struggled with it.