This time Kenneth Eugene Smith wasn’t so lucky.
This past Thursday evening, the state of Alabama was successful in murdering the 58-year-old murderer with nitrogen oxide, a gas that replaces oxygen in the body and causes death. Smith was the first convicted murderer in the world to die in this manner.
It’s a helluva legacy.
Despite there being little research on this method of nitrogen hypoxia, it was employed at Smith’s request after the state botched a 2022 effort to kill him by lethal injection. That first attempt was abandoned after several hours of technicians failing to find a vein to accept the needle that would deliver the lethal cocktail.
Despite the lack of much supporting evidence, Alabama officials are claiming that the use of nitrous gas is humane. Amnesty International does not agree and has said that the “untested method could be extremely painful, result in a botched execution, and could amount to torture or other cruel, inhumane, or degrading treatment or punishment, thereby violating international human rights treaties that the U.S. has ratified.”
In the course of this drama playing out, there’s not been much talk about the morality of the state executing its citizen criminals. Neither position—pro, con—is particularly tenable, with the Supreme Court frequently hearing arguments and either allowing executions or not.
The legal term for such judicial practice is “see-saw.”
Mr. Smith’s execution draws new attention to new ways of murdering people without regard to the moral question of the state taking the life of one of its citizens. How, for instance, can anybody find any sense of humanity in murder?
The state expects us not to kill, yet has few qualms about doing so to those of its own.
Maya Foa, the joint executive director of Reprieve, a human rights group, told The Guardian that “the recent spate of disastrous lethal injection executions has shown that whatever the drug, whatever the protocol, condemned prisoners often spend their final hours in agonizing pain and distress. With each gruesome scene in the death chamber, we are witnessing the consequences of persisting with a broken method of execution, in real time.”
For the record: Are there condemned prisoners who don’t spend their final hours in agonizing pain and distress?
Although there’s no proof that the threat of death acts as a deterrence in the commitment of murder, it’s reasonable to think that a normal person would not harbor any thoughts of murder. This is impossible to prove because we can’t get into the felon’s head to search for answers.
Twenty-seven American states can engage in capital punishment. The others have by popular vote or court renderings chosen not to. Those states with the death penalty have few methods of murder available to them: electrocution, firing squad, hanging, lethal injection, and lethal gas, the latter of which might include nitrogen hypoxia.
It would seem that there are methods that have been overlooked, many of which, if employed, would pique the interests of those would be willing to part with cash to witness the event. Ingestion of cyanide might be played out as the recipient twists and turns as the drug takes effect. It’s been a couple of centuries since we burned anybody at the stake, always a crowd pleaser. And what about the guillotine, a once-popular way of securing the severed head in a basket for easy viewing?
Clearly, we need to employ people whose interests begin with torture and end with a dead body. We need alternatives, a sense of history and a sense of humor. There’s no better place to begin than at the Museum of Medieval Torture Instruments in Prague, Czech Republic.
I visited the museum a few years ago with my son. Inside its four stories overlooking the river Charles, was red carpeting over floors that sagged in a few different directions. Despite our whispered black humor, the sphincter-tightening drabness on display made us glad we didn’t live in the 14th century.
There was no shortage of racks, water boarding equipment, cages and slow methods of torture, the latter of which featured giant cork screw that entered the body from the rear and slowly turned until it emerged from the skull. We wondered if the screw ever got that far. Personally, I would probably have lasted until somebody yelled, “we’re in.”
As fascinating as the instruments of torture were to see, I kept wondering about the people who designed them. What must have their childhoods been like? Did they lie awake at night imagining what pain the machines could deliver? Did they laugh at their inventions, or was it too serious a business to allow levity?
I’m unable to suggest any instruments of torture that would be suitable to create the pain and suffering of somebody to make them acquiesce to the demands of others. I do, however, have an idea for something more subtle but equally effective: Endless tape loops of the Lawrence Welk Show.
Photo illustration by Courtney A. Liska
Cucumbers in Sour Cream
This was my Bohemian grandmother’s idea of a salad. It’s delicious.
2 medium cucumbers, peeled and sliced thin
4 tablespoons sour cream
1 clove garlic, chopped
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon vinegar
1 medium sweet onion, thinly sliced (Optional)
1 dash paprika, for color
Combine the cucumbers, garlic and salt in a colander.
Place the colander in the sink and let stand for 1/2 hour.
Squeeze out as much water as you can with your hands.
Then place in a bowl and add the sour cream, vinegar.
(You may also add thinly sliced onions at this point).
Mix well and sprinkle with paprika for color.