• DPMC Moderators: thegreenhand | tryptakid
  • Drug Policy & Media Coverage Welcome Guest
    View threads about
    Posting Rules Bluelight Rules
    Drug Busts Megathread Video Megathread

Death-row inmate set to be executed December 1 but prison says it has no death drugs

Yeah, I know. Most US gas chambers use cyanide. Probably because it's been so well demonstrated to be lethal. It does result in some rather dramatic choking-to-death stuff as it effectively makes it so you can breathe but your blood no longer carries oxygen at the same time as acting as an acidic gas that irritates your eyes, nose and throat. Even taking a cyanide capsule orally will produce a 'dramatic' death.

Nitrogen asphyxia is much preferable, safer for bystanders and also cheaper - people exposed to pure N2 atmospheres act as if they otherwise didn't notice anything until they rapidly lose consciousness and eventually die. While you breathe it your body still removes CO2 so you'd not notice you were choking or otherwise not breathing air. Air is, after all, 78% nitrogen.

Obviously though, humanity to the executed is not really a driving factor in US capital punishment from what I see...

Yeah I always wondered how they arrived at that particular combination of drugs when the barbiturate alone is going to be 100% effective at a high enough dose.
Click to expand...

Nowadays there's been a switch to just thiopental for that reason. There's been cases argued that the paralytic and KCl are both inhumane due to evidence that e.g. poorly stored or improperly administered barbiturates result in the person being fully awake and aware but paralysed and unable to act or communicate as they get to feel their veins burn and their heart stop. I guess straight barbiturate OD is an incremental improvement.

I think a more pressing problem is that nobody wants to sell barbiturates or any other drugs to the US if they know or suspect they're going to be used for the express purpose of murdering someone, effectively. And no US commercial source produces strong barbiturates any more because of the lovely DEA. So I've heard that some states have tried using midazolam plus hydromorphone in huge doses as a lethal agent instead. Now that's something I'm sure most of BL can get behind.
 
Last edited:
CFC said:
Yeah I always wondered how they arrived at that particular combination of drugs when the barbiturate alone is going to be 100% effective at a high enough dose.
Click to expand...

Apparently Ohio did use barbiturate only lethal injection for awhile.

I think the rationale for the drugs are to render the patient unconscious, which I think we all agree is a good thing, via the barb, give the neuromuscular blocking agent and hope it kills them, but then just in case, administer the KCL to stop the heart as they lay there paralyzed and hopefully still unconscious. Seems really twisted now that I think about it. I think Id still opt for the bullet.
 
The paralytic is for the spectators. It makes the death seem humane even if it isn't.
 
cj said:
The paralytic is for the spectators. It makes the death seem humane even if it isn't.
Click to expand...

god that's fucked up

sekio said:
So I've heard that some states have tried using midazolam plus hydromorphone in huge doses as a lethal agent instead. Now that's something I'm sure most of BL can get behind.
Click to expand...

touché. ;)
where do i sign up?
 
Kittycat5 said:
Im not 100% sure of the legality of it, but why not just use a firing squad if we must have the death penalty? It certainly seems no less inhumane than torturing these people with drugs.
Click to expand...

It fucks up the people doing it way more than pressing some buttons to lethally inject. Even a 2 year old could tell the difference between a blank and a bullet.
 
The Network said:
It fucks up the people doing it way more than pressing some buttons to lethally inject. Even a 2 year old could tell the difference between a blank and a bullet.
Click to expand...

I dont know shit about guns so I will believe you on the blanks v live ammo. I dont know why firing a gun to kill someone is more difficult than killing them any other way though.
 
There's actually no difference between a blank and real bullet so long as the powder charge is identical. It's the powder charge that causes your recoil,not the bullet
 
Oy vei. Now which is correct? I was always under the impression bptubbs version is correct and am being lazy because guns dont interest me. Regardless, killing is killing so either one can be traumatic.
 
I've been shooting for 15 years kitty. I grew up in the Midwest I can promise you there is no difference, there have actually even been reports of people dying from blanks at extremely close range all it is, is a primer the powder charge and a paper wad to hold it together.
 
The muzzle velocity of the gases alone can do damage. Think suppressor burns
 
Yeah, Im positive you are right after thinking about it for a minute. Ive never done the experiment myself but the physics of it combined with what Ive read about firing squads make me believe it.
 
Yeah I'm not sure where he got his info from. I'm also more inclined toward a firing squad. Not to mention a few western states used to use what's called a shooting gallery which was in essence an automated firing squad. The inmate was strapped to a chair with a large caliber firearm to their head, no one pulled the trigger. In the old west they also uses automated gallows for hangings.
 
bptubbs said:
There's actually no difference between a blank and real bullet so long as the powder charge is identical. It's the powder charge that causes your recoil,not the bullet
Click to expand...

The weight of the bullet has an influence on recoil, for a same powder load.
 
The Network said:
It fucks up the people doing it way more than pressing some buttons to lethally inject.
Click to expand...
After watching a Japanese series on Netflix where the protagonist's father is on death row, now that is some fucked up shit. The condemned doesn't know until the morning of their execution that they're going to be hanged. And guards are mandated to show up to work. There's no taking time off so they don't have to take part. I read the account of a guard who almost cracked under that pressure.
 
With experience a frangible bullet weighs the same as a regular bullet, but comes apart after leaving the barrel.
The point of the link is that the whole blank thing is a myth to give the executioners the benefit of doubt. Your minds not thinking oh a blank would recoil less, your e thinking there's a chance I didnt end this man's life. Gives them something to tell themselves they aren't a killer.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top