DavidPhares Loc: Chandler, Arizona

First off, I am not advocating for the death penalty, only for how it is administered,

Once you clear the issue of executing the wrong person, it seems the two major legal arguments today raging around the issue of the death penalty are (1) the availability of the 3 drug “cocktail” currently in use, and (2) that there have recently been several “botched” executions where the convicted appeared to have suffered for an extended period of time prior to passing from this mortal existence.

I suggest if you are going to administer the death penalty you do it by way of Carbon Monoxide (CO) gas.

As for the availability issue, currently drug companies do not want their drugs used to k**l people, even murders, thus they are restricting its applications. Many states currently attempting to use lethal injection are finding it harder and harder to obtain the necessary drugs legally. Switching to a gas chamber that is filled with CO gas solves the availability.

As for the suffering issue, countless folks all over the world use CO gas from their personal vehicles to end their lives, painlessly, every year. With CO gas you inhale an odorless gas, you fall asleep, and you die.

CO gas would be inexpensive, sure, and there is certainly an adequate supply. It may take several minutes longer to do accomplish death, but it would save months and years in legal battles in the courts, and thus millions of dollars in tax money spent in those battles.

If you are going to execute really bad people, whom you are absolutely certain are worthy of death, then do it the most humane, efficient, sure, and fiscally responsible way possible; use CO gas.

Huey Driver Loc: Texas

Interesting. I wonder if there are any reasons not to use this method and if it's ever been considered?

mwalsh Loc: Houston

What about helium...I have heard it is quick and painless.

dpullum Loc: Tampa Florida

Yes, If terminal with cancer that would be my choice. To add humor, "It would make you lite headed before the end."

I once had a dentist who used nitrous oxide, laughing gas, it put my mind in a very creative state. I recall multiplying two 3 digit numbers on a blackboard in my mind.

sb Loc: Florida's East Coast

Helium suffocates you by depriving you of oxygen. I would think that awareness and panic would occur before death. But you die of embarrassment from the Donald Duck voice.

sb Loc: Florida's East Coast

I have had that discussion with my wife in the past - that CO gas would make a lot of sense for executions. Odorless, painless, you go to sleep, you turn bright cherry red, and you die. Unless you murdered children. In that case you are very slowly fed feet-first into a wood chipper.

Architect1776 Loc: In my mind

Firing squad is very quick and efficient with no suffering.
Or as the French and Germans did with the guillotine.
No suffering or pain whatsoever.
Any gas is a suffocation and there is a period of suffering if that is the concern.
I believe anyone who is worthy of k*****g should suffer the exact same death they gave to the victim.

thom w Loc: San Jose, CA

I'm against capital punishment, but I've heard nitrogen discussed. It suffocates a person, and it purges CO2 so there should be no gasping for air. I'm sure you know a lot more about it than I do. A sedative would make it more humane. Still, I'm against it.

Architect1776 Loc: In my mind

Drowning causes no gasping for air either, no difference.
You are depriving oxygen by drowning in different forms of fluids, a horrible way to die.

thom w Loc: San Jose, CA

From what I understand, and what they teach to get a certificate to handle medical gasses, CO2 triggers the breathing response. People are suffocated by nitrogen, and don't even know it until they go unconscious. I'm not expert. I have a little bit of knowledge, and that can sometimes be dangerous.

CPR Loc: Nature Coast of Florida

I think the murderer should die by the same way as the person they k**led.

jkm757 Loc: San Diego, Ca.

Why not sedate them and put them in a freezer.

Fotoartist Loc: Detroit, Michigan

I sense a consensus that the death penalty is the just consequence of a capital offense which to me makes logical sense.

No bleeding heart Libs around but one.

FrumCA

Or not [sedate them].

FrumCA