South Carolina prison officials told death row inmate Richard Moore on Tuesday that he can choose between a firing squad, the electric chair and lethal injection for his Nov. 1 execution.
State law gives Moore until Oct. 18 to decide or by default he will be electrocuted. His execution would mark the second in South Carolina after a 13-year pause due to the state not being able to obtain a drug needed for lethal injection.
Moore, 59, is facing the death penalty for the September 1999 shooting of store clerk James Mahoney. Moore went into the Spartanburg County store unarmed to rob it and the two ended up in a shootout after Moore was able to take one of Mahoney’s guns. Moore was wounded, while Mahoney died from a bullet to the chest.
I know a guy who works for a pharmaceutical company that refused to supply a drug that is sometimes used in executions (not a poison, but a fast-acting anesthetic). After US prisons tried to order the drug through straw men and deliberately misrepresenting its use, the company stopped selling it to the US altogether. This is presumably a loss for US doctors, as this drug is typically used in trauma surgery. All the more reason to finally abolish the death penalty - it is barbaric anyway.
The amount of money and hoops these assholes that have a homicide fantasy go through to get the proper drug is kinda wild. And as per usual John Oliver covered well in his Executions video.
Especially when nitrogen is abundantly available. But, cruelty is the point of these things, so a painless method won’t ever be used.
Nitrogen doesn’t actually work any better (I believe it was actually worse since the idea is based off junk science), and I believe John touches on that in the video I linked above also.
You’re thinking of the execution where they used a mask instead of a chamber like you’re supposed to.
And it’s not junk science that nitrogen inhalation causes hypoxia.
I was stating the part about using nitrogen as an “easy and painless” death were based off junk science, well not even science really, just people that know that it kills people and looking for new ways to use it legally to do so.
The use of chamber, would require even more of an investment to make safe. If it were to leak during the execution, or staff opened the chamber before it was completely removed it could endanger the lives of everyone in the facility. I also think the results with a mask or chamber would be in the end the same, someone gasping for breath while suffocating to death.
Also here is a bit about nitrogen executions, and the horrific job done in Alabama last year.
As divers can tell you, you gasp from carbon dioxide buildup, not from lack of oxygen. That’s why repeatedly breathing in helium to pitch up your voice can be really dangerous, you don’t notice your body is out of oxygen. I believe nitrogen has potential for assisted suicide, like in the Swiss case that has gained some controversy recently.
The death penalty, however, is barbaric no matter how it’s performed. Cruelty is the point.
No, using a chamber wouldn’t put the whole facility at risk. A ventilation system would be pretty easy, or you could have the chamber outside or something.
Also, I referenced the Alabama case originally. They used a mask instead of a chamber.
A meant a leak in the chamber would possibly put the facility at risk, not just having the chamber. And we know the kind of maintenance a chamber used maybe a handful of times a year is going to get to keep it air tight. Plus it’s added cost to the already absurd cost of killing someone, instead of actually trying to rehabilitate them (will always be some that cannot be of course). And putting it outside then makes the air tight chamber subjected to the weather/elements, adding more cost in maintenance.
And I know you mentioned the mask vs chamber thing, but I don’t see it going differently just because they are going to vacuum oxygen out and nitrogen in. And would also add the cost of further staff training on opening a chamber full of nitrogen (potentially) rather than a room with possibly some nitrogen from a leaking mask. Just don’t see the cost analysis of this being in the ballpark of cost effective when we could put that money to better use.
A leak in the chamber wouldn’t put the whole facility at risk. This isn’t Zyklon B; it takes a lot of nitrogen to cause hypoxia.
And using a mask increases blood CO2 levels which is what caused the issues in Alabama.