Thread

Tennessee inmate still alive after being administered two lethal injections

47 points · 139 comments · techolic

joegibbs · 1790833441 · focus · HN ↗
I am very against medicalised punishments like this. It’s bad for medicine as a whole to be associated with it. I also think it prolongs the suffering of the person and often has things like this happen, and is mainly for the benefit of the audience not wanting to see icky blood.
What is wrong with firing squads? They have been used longer than lethal injections. If they didn’t succeed the first time they can fire again. There’s no danger of the drugs not working or not being able to find a vein.
Also I don’t think it’s right for a prisoner to be on death row for most of their lives. 4-5 years is good enough, but after that it’s cruel.
1. ashleyn · 1790861838 · focus · HN ↗
  Medical professionals do not take part in executions. Lethal injection has the vague trappings of a medical procedure, but is fundamentally not one. Prisons even must resort to trickery to obtain the drugs, as pharmaceutical organisations are prohibited ethically and even sometimes legally from selling to them.
  By and large I view the death penalty as anachronistic, but as long as it must exist, one gets the impression that firing squads and hangings are a hell of a lot more honest about what it really is.
  1. dyauspitr · 1790887116 · focus · HN ↗
    This is what I don’t understand. You don’t need a doctor to tell you what to do. Like ChatGPT 3.5 could tell you the best way to kill a person painlessly and effectively. Why don’t they just go with something better like nitrogen asphyxiation or a morphine overdose or something?
    evolvevia · 1790904285 · focus · HN ↗
    > Why don’t they just go with something better like nitrogen asphyxiation
    Alabama have just started using this method - and it appears to be extremely torturous. Rather than just passing out, the person suffocates while conscious:
    <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/jan/26/alabama-nitrogen-gas-execution-torture" rel="nofollow">https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/jan/26/alabama-nitr...
    > or a morphine overdose
    Nebraska has tried using fentanyl. But the drug manufacturers are against it.
    <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-45185687" rel="nofollow">https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-45185687

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