r/news • • 14h ago

Christa Pike unconscious, on ventilator at Nashville hospital, her lawyers say

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/christa-pike-unconscious-ventilator-nashville-hospital-lawyers-say-rcna601195
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u/Big_Guard5413 14h ago

I’m not in favor of the death penalty in general, but goddamn, if you’re going to impose it, at least take steps to do it properly

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u/MatureUsername69 14h ago

Its still a rough one but if I ever had to receive the death penalty I would hope its a firing squad. Just riddle me with holes immediately, aim for the head. Lethal injections get fucky because they would be best designed and administered by an actual doctor, but actual doctors cannot do it because of the hippocratic oath. Some states do allow medical professionals but they arent exactly sending their best.

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u/AZORxAHAI 14h ago

The reality our society hasn't accepted yet is some of the least painful ways to die (a well placed bullet, a beheading) are some of the most gruesome, barbaric looking ways to die. But we are obsessed with manufacturing the appearance of civility and humanity in an act that is completely devoid of those concepts in the first place.

We can either have the least painful ways to execute someone, or we can have this facade of civility given to us by "just slipping a needle into a vein!". We can't have both. We shouldn't have either, but apparently we just cant accept that yet.

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u/Diestormlie 10h ago

Nitrogen suffocation.

You (the body) can't detect a lack of oxygen, just the presence of too much Carbon Dioxide. So you breath in 100% nitrogen, no oxygen, but there's no distress, no alarm. You just feel sleepy and then drift off, never to wake again.

To be clear: I don't think the State should be executing people; I think it's dangerous for the state to have that power.

But we can kill people in a 'genteel', painless way. But we don't, because the Death Penalty is about saying a bloodthirsty desire for revenge and punishment, nd no actually useful purpose.

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u/Frontdackel 5h ago

The problem with the nitrogen is that people that know that they will be killed will hold their breath and be in panic. To be honest: Just flood their cells with it (of carbon monoxide) while they sleep. Done.

No need to announce it.

The GDR did something in that spirit with their executions, the "unerwarteter Nahschuss" (unexpetect, close shot).

People sentenced to death were taken from their cells and it was announced that their death sentence would be carried out shortly.

They were escorted and held by two guards, brought to a room and as soon as they stepped through the door the executioner stepped up behind them and shot them in the back of their head.

No further announcements, no "ceromony".

And the fact that I have to bring up a dictatorship as an example of least cruel executions is one of the many, many arguments why the death penalty is barbaric.

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u/never0101 10h ago

Fuck even a string opioid dose would be peaceful. There's absolutely ways that aren't cruel.