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The technology for capital punishment

The topic of capital punishment is a sensitive one.

Today I don't intend to discuss the merits (or otherwise) of capital punishment but I do want to talk about the technology involved.

This subject is topical because the US state of Alabama intends to conduct its first execution using nitrogen gas and this has created a storm of disinformation and hysteria.

Many methods of execution have been used over the centuries, when authorities have felt it desirable to take the life of someone and not all of them have been particularly humane.

For many years the USA relied on the gas chamber, hanging, electrocution and even firing squads as methods for despatching those who, according to a judge, were no longer entitled to the privilege of life.

Each of those has the potential for things to go wrong and inflict significant suffering on the victim.

So, in the quest for a more humane end, various other mechanisms have been tried, including lethal injection.

You would think that administering a lethal injection would be a pretty simple task -- after all, significant numbers of drug addicts do this to themselves every year.

Unfortunately, what some poor soul seeking the ultimate "high" seems able to do without a second thought, the mechanism of the state finds near-impossible. So many of the executions performed by lethal injection have either failed or inflicted very obvious suffering on the victim.

It is because of this, and also supposedly due to the fact that pharmaceutical companies refuse to provide the chemical cocktails needed for such procedures, that some states in the USA have decided to try using nitrogen asphixiation as a more effective and reliable method of execution. To be honest, I can't understand why they just don't dip into the evidence locker, load up a syinge with a fatal dose of heroin and squirt that into the veins of anyone condemned to death. Surely that would be cheap, effective and a sensible use of available resources.

Sadly, I fear that the reason they don't use this obvious method is because someone in authority fears that the executed individuals may die with a smile on their face -- and we can't have that!

So how does death by nitrogen work and what are the risks?

Well this BBC story makes it very clear that there are a lot of ill-informed people out there, all having their say on the matter.

From the article:

Seriously? Does Reverend Hood not actually know that 80 percent of the air we breathe is already made up of nitrogen? The amount that might leak from the facemask attached to the condemned's head would pose zero risk to anyone else.

From what I've read it's also clear that this method of execution is likely to be about as humane as such a procedure can be.

It would probably surprise many people to know that there would be no feeling of suffocation, even though the inhaled gas contains no oxygen. Instead, a light-headed feeling of euphoria would quickly be induced, followed by a lapse into unconsciousness.

There would be no dramaticaly increased urge to breathe and feeling of suffocation, as is the case when you hold your breath for too long. It is the build-up of CO2 in your lungs that creates those urges by acidifying the blood (apparently). In the case of nitrogen asphixiation, the CO2 is exhaled so the blood pH remains stable but the brain and the rest of the body shuts down due to a lack of oxygen.

There is plenty of existing evidence that shows how people exposed to an oxygen-deficient atmosphere are often unaware that this is happening, the effect is so insidious.

Helium has been used instead of nitrogen by many who support the "right to die" movement, as a way of quietly ending a life. Just like nitrogen, helium simply provides something to breath which is devoid of oxygen. In fact, so many people have used helium as an exit mechanism that most cylinders of balloon gas are now just 80 percent helium and 20 percent oxygen (as you can see under "safety information" on this page) -- meaning you can breathe the stuff all day without any adverse effects.

It's been my experience that a government-driven bureaucracy can stuff up even the simplest of tasks so it will be interesting (from a purely technological perspective) to see how Alabama's first nitrogen-based execution works out.

Carpe Diem folks!

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