[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----IND., TENN., KY., MO., NEV., CALIF., WASH., USA

[Rick Halperin]

May 8



INDIANA:

Indiana Serial Killer Pleads Guilty to Killing Seven Women Out of 'Anger,' Is 
Spared Death Penalty



A former Marine who admitted Friday to murdering 7 women in Indiana will be 
spared the death penalty as part of his plea deal, according to multiple 
reports.

Darren D. Vann, a resident of Gary, was first arrested in 2014. His trial was 
set to begin in October and prosecutors had indicated they would seek the death 
penalty, according to the Chicago Tribune.

But on Friday, The New York Times reports, Vann pleaded guilty to the 
strangulation deaths of Afrikka Hardy, 19, of Hammond, and Anith Jones, 35, of 
Merrillville, and five Gary women: Teaira Batey, 28; Tracy Martin, 41; Kristine 
Williams, 36; Sonya Billingsley, 53; and Tanya Gatlin, 27.

After his arrest for killing Hardy, Vann led police to the bodies of the 6 
other women.

Vann will likely learn at his sentencing hearing May 25 that he'll be sentenced 
to life in prison without parole, reports the Times of Northwest Indiana.

The Times of Northwest Indiana reports that Vann targeted women who lived in an 
area of Gary where women gathered to use drugs or prostitute.

Vann was asked by detectives why he started killing women in Indiana, and, 
according to the Times of Northwest Indiana, he told them, "Just I guess, 
anger. 'Cause I feel I shouldn't have went to prison the 1st time. You see what 
I'm saying?"

Vann served several years in a Texas prison for sexual assault, and moved back 
to Indiana upon being released in 2013.

Vann served in the Marines before receiving an "other than honorable" discharge 
in 1993.

(source: people.com)








TENNESSEE:

Convicted killer to serve 30 years in addition to death penalty



Urshawn Miller will serve 30 years in additional to facing the death penalty 
after a jury found him guilty in March of killing a gas station clerk during an 
attempted robbery.

"The state asserts that the defendant is a dangerous offender whose behavior 
indicates little or no regard for human life, no hesitation about committing a 
crime when the risk to human life is high," District Attorney General Jody 
Pickens said in court.

Urshawn Miller was convicted of killing Bull Market gas station clerk Ahmad 
Dhalai after a jury trial earlier this year. Dhalai was shot and killed during 
an attempted robbery while working as a clerk at Bull Market on Hollywood Drive 
in November 2015.

Miller was sentenced to the death penalty after his trial, but returned to 
court today for sentencing on seven additional charges stemming from Dhalai's 
murder.

"The jury also found him guilty on several other counts of this indictments," 
Judge Don Allen said.

Miller's sentencing hearing Monday was scheduled for attempted especially 
aggravated robbery, attempted 2nd-degree murder, aggravated assault, employing 
a firearm during the attempt to commit a dangerous felony, resisting arrest and 
evading arrest.

After an hour-long hearing, Allen sentenced Miller to serve another 30 years in 
addition to the death penalty he is already facing. Those 30 years will be 
served at the same time as his death penalty sentence.

Miller's attorneys have filed a motion for a new trial. The hearing is 
scheduled for July 30. Miller's attorney George Googe says they also plan to 
appeal.

(source: WBBJ TV news)








KENTUCKY:

Froman murder trial set for May 2019



It will take another year before Terry Froman, charged with a 2014 murder and 
kidnapping will go on trial.

Graves Circuit Judge Tim Stark had originally hoped to try Froman in March, but 
scheduling conflicts caused a further delay.

Instead, on Monday, Stark set the trial for May 7, 2019.

"I'll go ahead and schedule it for the entire month," he said.

The trial will be Tuesdays through Fridays so the court can conduct other 
business as needed on Mondays, Stark said.

Commonwealth Attorney David Hargrove said the continuance was necessary, 
although it makes it tougher to prosecute a case after such a lengthy delay.

"It took them 3 years to get him tried in Ohio," Hargrove said. "If we can get 
that done in a little over a year, that's good. A death penalty case has a lot 
of procedural safeguards that have to be addressed, and that just takes time."

Stark only sets trials in odd-numbered months. Hargrove said he would have 
liked to have the trial in March, but defense attorney Michael Bufkin, from the 
capital trial branch of the Kentucky Department of Public Advocacy, based in 
Shelbyville, already has 2 trials scheduled for March.

The only way the trial could be set earlier would be to have it second or later 
on the docket under trials already scheduled by the court, Hargrove said.

"We did not want this to be a back-up case, so the court basically cleared the 
trial calendar for May 2019," Hargrove said.

Bufkin said he could not get into specifics about the case but spoke in general 
terms.

"We're working hard to present a defense for Mr. Froman, and we're going to do 
the best we can for him," he said.

Froman, of Brookport, Illinois, said nothing and appeared in court wearing an 
orange jumpsuit. He has been held at the Christian County Jail since his 
extradition Feb. 2 from Chillicothe, Ohio.

An agreement between the governors of Kentucky and Ohio -- where Froman has 
already been convicted and sentenced to death -- called for Froman to be held 
at the jail, which is a larger facility with a higher level of security and 
staffing, Hargrove previously said.

Both Bufkin and Bethany Wilcutt, Froman's local counsel, are defending Froman 
for the Kentucky Department of Public Advocacy. They have entered a not guilty 
plea on his behalf to charges of murder, kidnapping (victim death), 1st-degree 
burglary and tampering with evidence.

Froman is charged in connection with the fatal shooting of Eli Mohney, 17, of 
Mayfield in September 2014 and the kidnapping of Mohney's mother, Kim Thomas, 
his ex-girlfriend. A Warren County, Ohio, jury convicted him of Thomas' 
aggravated murder and kidnapping in June 2017, finding that Froman shot her 
while driving on Interstate 75 near Middletown, Ohio. After 2 1/2 hours of 
deliberation, the same jury recommended the death penalty for the murder 
conviction as well as 17 years for the kidnapping.

Froman could also face the death penalty in Graves County, if convicted, but he 
will be returned to Ohio for execution under the agreement between the 
governors.

In the sentencing hearing in Ohio, local media reported Froman read a statement 
to the jury, saying he wanted to live as well as apologizing and saying he took 
total responsibility for Thomas' death. He said he wanted to plead guilty and 
be sentenced to life in prison in Ohio, but prosecutors would not agree to a 
plea deal.

(source: The Paducah Sun)








MISSOURI----female may face death penalty

Pam Hupp's lawyers file motions to avoid death penalty



Attorneys representing murder suspect Pam Hupp have filed a series of motions 
in St. Charles Circuit Court. It is an attempt to take the death penalty off 
the table.

Hupp is accused of killing Louis Gumpenberger in 2016.

Prosecutors say it was part of an elaborate scheme to make it look like he 
tried to kidnap her over insurance money which she received after the 2011 
death of her friend, Betsy Faria.

Hupp's attorneys filed motions to seeking to have evidence from the Faria 
murder trial and circumstances surrounding her mother's death excluded from her 
murder trial of Gumpenberger.

(source: fox2now.com)








NEVADA:

Nevada court considers allowing first execution since 2006



Nevada's Supreme Court is considering whether to allow the state to move 
forward with its 1st execution of a death row inmate in 12 years.

Federal public defenders and the American Civil Liberties Union are challenging 
Nevada's plan to use a combination of 3 drugs never tried before in the United 
States.

Twice-convicted killer Scott Raymond Dozier says he wants to be put to death as 
soon as possible, and doesn't care what drugs are used in the fatal injection 
that a judge in Las Vegas blocked in November after opponents argued one of the 
drugs could cover up potential suffering.

The Supreme Court scheduled an hour's worth of oral arguments Tuesday in Carson 
City. A ruling is not expected Tuesday and could be months away.

The ACLU says the experimental mixture of drugs includes a paralytic that's 
illegal to use when euthanizing pets in Nevada.

It says the execution would violate the Eighth Amendment to the U.S. 
Constitution prohibiting "cruel and unusual punishment" as well the Nevada 
constitution, which outlaws "either" cruel or unusual punishment.

Among the questions the federal public defender and ACLU say must be answered 
is whether the state is required to establish the "severity and duration of 
pain likely to be produced." They argue Dozier could be "awake and aware for 
several minutes while suffering and suffocating to death."

ACLU lawyer Amy Rose said it could result "in a tortuous death akin to 
waterboarding."

"Causing death by suffocation is not only cruel, but torture," she said last 
week.

Dozier, 47, was found guilty of the 2007 murder and dismemberment of 
22-year-old Jeremiah Miller, whose torso was found in a suitcase dumped into a 
trash bin in Las Vegas. He also was convicted in 2005 of second-degree murder 
of another victim, whose torso was found buried in the Arizona desert.

"My overarching and near singular desire is to get my execution done as 
expeditiously as possible," Dozier wrote in a handwritten note Dec. 12 letter 
from Ely state prison.

"The bottom line is: It's his choice," chief Clark County district attorney 
Jonathan VanBoskerck said.

Nevada has executed 12 inmates since capital punishment was reinstated by the 
legislature in 1977. The last was Daryl Mack, who was put to death by lethal 
injection on April 26, 2006 for the 1988 rape and murder of a Reno woman, Betty 
Jane May.

Nevada is among several states that have struggled in recent years to find 
drugs after pharmaceutical companies and distributors banned their use in 
executions.

The Nevada Department of Corrections wants to use a 3-drug mix including the 
sedative diazepam, commonly known as Valium, the powerful opioid painkiller 
fentanyl and the paralytic, cisatracurium.

Dozier's execution was called off last November after Clark County Judge 
Jennifer Togliatti in Las Vegas decided prison officials could use the first 2 
drugs, which an expert medical witness testified would probably be enough to 
cause death. She temporarily banned the use of the paralytic out of concerns 
that its effect would prevent witnesses from seeing indications of pain if 
Dozier suffers.

(source: Associated Press)

****************

Nevada Supreme Court to Hear Arguments in Death Penalty Case



The Nevada Supreme Court is scheduled to hear an appeal allowing the state to 
execute convicted killer Scott Dozier with a never-before tried drug 
combination.

Late last year a judge put off the execution after opponents argued the drugs 
could cover up potential suffering.

Dozier has asked for his execution to be carried out regardless of the drug 
used.

A jury convicted Dozier of the 2002 murder and dismemberment of Jeremiah 
Miller, 22. Miller's torso was found in a suitcase that had been dumped into a 
trash bin in Las Vegas. Dozier was also found guilty of 2nd-degree murder of 
another victim, whose torso was found buried in the Arizona desert.

Nevada state law requires all executions to be done by lethal injection, but no 
states can buy the traditional drugs needed to complete the sentences.

(source: KTVN news)








CALIFORNIA:

California justice calls for new rules on eyewitness identification in court



A California Supreme Court justice, dissenting Monday in a death penalty 
decision, called for new rules to curb inaccurate eyewitness identification, a 
leading cause of wrongful convictions.

The dissent came in a case in which the court decided 5 to 2 to uphold the 
death sentence of Ennis Reed, convicted of killing 2 people in Compton.

Justice Goodwin Liu wrote the dissent, calling on the courts to better police 
eyewitness testimony. Justice Leondra Kruger did not sign Liu's dissent but 
wrote separately, saying she was dissenting in Reed's case for the reasons Liu 
cited.

Reed was sentenced to death in 1999 for killing Amarilis Vasquez and Paul 
Moreland in separate incidents.

Evidence at Reed's death penalty trial showed he had dropped out of school 
after 7th grade, when he was performing at the level of a 3rd- or 4th-grader, 
and had been convicted in 1992 of attempted murder for driving a car in which a 
passenger shot someone from the vehicle.

In the appeal of his death penalty case, Reed, who is African American, argued 
that the prosecutor discriminated against African Americans in picking the jury 
and that the evidence, largely testimony by eyewitnesses, did not support the 
convictions.

Reed also challenged the eyewitness testimony. In the case of one of the 
witnesses, Reed was the only bald person in a 6-photo array and the only person 
to appear in both the photos and the in-person lineup.

Justice Mariano-Florentino Cuellar, writing the majority ruling, rejected 
Reed's claims. Cuellar cited a variety of reasons that justified the 
prosecutor's decision to exclude some African Americans while keeping others.

The court majority also said the eyewitness identification was buttressed by 
evidence that placed Reed near the scene of one of the killings and with an 
individual whose last name matched someone police chased that night into a home 
that contained the murder weapon.

Moreover, the majority said, an eyewitness in 1 of the killings identified Reed 
in 2 lineups and at the preliminary hearing.

Liu, joined by Kruger, said the conviction had to be overturned because the 
trial judge failed in his legal responsibility to examine the prosecutor's 
motives after Reed's lawyer objected to the removal of several African American 
prospective jurors.

"As a result of the trial court's error, we cannot be confident that Reed was 
convicted by a jury selected without regard to race," Liu wrote.

The dissent also stressed that the law was not keeping pace with the science on 
eyewitness identification.

The eyewitnesses in Reed's case saw the assailant while they were under great 
stress, in poor lighting and at a distance, the dissent said. They also were a 
different race from the perpetrator, and 1 of them did not identify Reed in a 
photo lineup until several months after the killing.

Citing an array of research, Liu said new jury instructions should be written 
to help jurors understand the problematic nature of eyewitness testimony and 
weigh its accuracy.

Law enforcement also can reduce the risk of inaccuracy, Liu wrote, by 
videotaping lineups and ensuring the operator of the lineup does not know which 
person is the suspect.

"But there is little that courts can do to induce law enforcement to adopt 
these practices unless courts themselves subject such evidence to greater 
scrutiny," Liu said.

He said the state high courts of Oregon and New Jersey have taken steps to try 
and ensure that trial judges better police eyewitness testimony and called on 
the Legislature and the Judicial Council, the policymaking body for the courts, 
to address the issue.

"This case provides another example of the problematic nature of eyewitness 
identification evidence, particularly where such evidence is the sole or 
principal evidence against the defendant," Liu wrote.

(source: Los Angeles Times)

******************

Trio could face death penalty if convicted in deadly crime spree



3 confirmed gang members accused of going on a 2-week crime spree, during which 
a man who they allegedly mistook for an undercover police officer was killed in 
Chula Vista and a female victim branded as a "snitch" was shot and left 
paralyzed, pleaded not guilty Monday to murder, attempted murder and other 
charges that could bring the death penalty if they're convicted.

Cesar Alvarado, 39, Britney Canal, 29, and Michael Anthony Pedraza, 27, were 
all ordered held without bail. They face special circumstance allegations of 
lying in wait, murder during a robbery or kidnapping and murder by discharging 
a firearm from a motor vehicle.

Deputy District Attorney David Grapilon said the crime spree started about 8 
a.m. on April 1 when Alvarado and Canal allegedly robbed 2 people at gunpoint 
at the Howard Johnson motel in Chula Vista.

On April 11, about 12:50 p.m., the defendants spotted a car driven by Mario 
Serhan - who they suspected was an officer surveilling them - and followed him 
down Industrial Boulevard in Chula Vista, according to the prosecutor.

Canal pulled up next to Serhan and Alvarado allegedly shot the victim in the 
head, Grapilon said in a motion in support of denying bail to the defendants.

Grapilon said Serhan was an innocent victim who was "in the wrong place at the 
wrong time."

The prosecutor alleged that he defendants had a kidnapping victim - identified 
only as Mya H. in court documents - in the back seat of their car when Serhan 
was murdered.

Grapilon said Mya H. had agreed to hang out with a friend at Sunset Cliffs and 
use drugs with him, but Alvarado, Canal and Pedraza showed up and robbed her, 
then shocked her with a stun gun.

Over the course of 2 days, the defendants allegedly forced her to call family 
and friends for money. They accused Mya H. of being a "snitch" and ordered her 
to walk down to the ocean, where Pedraza shot her three times, Graphilon 
alleged.

1 of the bullets went through her left ear. Tourists found her 4 hours later, 
and she was taken to a hospital, where she underwent surgery, the prosecutor 
said. She is paralyzed and remains in critical condition, the prosecutor said.

The night of Serhan's murder, the defendants allegedly beat a man they accused 
of taking money from Pedraza's wallet, which he had dropped at the Knight's Inn 
motel in San Ysidro.

The afternoon of April 12, Pedraza allegedly stabbed a man in the leg at El 
Toyon Park after Alvarado confronted the victim in his car, Grapilon said.

The alleged victim, Derek Grover, pursued his attackers in his car, and during 
the chase, Alvarado allegedly fired 3 shots at Grover, missing him, the 
prosecutor said in his court filing.

A status conference was set for May 17.

(source: fox5sandiego.com)








WASHINGTON:

On this day: State of Washington carries out its 1st execution in 1904



The following historylink essay, written by David Wilma, looks back at the 1st 
execution carried out by the state of Washington in 1904.

On May 6, 1904, the State of Washington carries out its 1st execution. Zenon 
"James" Champoux is hanged at the Washington State Penitentiary at Walla Walla 
for the murder of Lottie Brace in Seattle on November 5, 1902. Executions prior 
to this were held in public in the counties where the defendant was convicted.

The Washington Territorial Legislature first enacted a death penalty statute in 
1854. In 1901, the state legislature amended the statute to require that 
executions take place at the state penitentiary.

Zenon Champoux was a 26-year-old French Canadian prospecting in Alaska when he 
met entertainer Lottie Brace, age 18. Brace promised to marry Champoux, then 
she left for Spokane and Seattle.

She found employment "working as a dance hall girl below the line [south of 
Yesler Way]" (Star). Champoux found Brace at the Arcade variety theater with 
her sister Ella. When Brace rejected his advances, he stabbed her in the temple 
with his knife in front of witnesses. She died later that day.

A King County jury did not accept his plea of insanity and convicted him of her 
murder. The judge sentenced him to death. Press reports of the day describe 
Champoux as speaking only broken English and exhibiting strange behaviors such 
as insisting on eating only raw meat and vegetables. Champoux said to fellow 
inmates that if Brace would not love him in this world, he would force her to 
love him in the next.

According to press reports, Champoux was awakened at 4:00 a.m. when he 
exchanged his prison stripes for a new black suit. After praying with a 
Catholic priest, he was taken to the scaffold and he mounted the steps 
unassisted and positioned himself over the drop. He made no statement and his 
only expression of emotion was a tear (or crying, depending on the report) 
while reading scripture on the platform. Although Champoux was described as 
dying instantly from the drop, his heart did not stop beating for 17 minutes.

Washington abolished the death penalty in 1913 and enacted it again in 1919.

(source: "Champoux Pays Penalty Today," Seattle Post-Intelligencer, May 6, 
1904, p. 8; "Champoux Must Hang," The Seattle Star, May 3, 1904, p. 3; 
"Champoux Pays Death Penalty," Ibid., May 6, 1904, p. 1.----KIRO news)








USA:

States Turn to an Unproven Method of Execution: Nitrogen Gas



Hamstrung by troubles with lethal injection - gruesomely botched attempts, 
legal battles and growing difficulty obtaining the drugs - states are looking 
for alternative ways to carry out the death penalty. High on the list for some 
is a method that has never been used before: inhaling nitrogen gas.

Oklahoma, Alabama and Mississippi have authorized nitrogen for executions and 
are developing protocols to use it, which represents a leap into the unknown. 
There is no scientific data on executing people with nitrogen, leading some 
experts to question whether states, in trying to solve old problems, may create 
new ones.

"If and when states begin carrying out executions with nitrogen, it will amount 
to the same type of experimentation we see in the different variations of 
lethal injection," said Jen Moreno, a lawyer who is an expert on lethal 
injection at the Berkeley Law Death Penalty Clinic.

With some 2,750 inmates on death row in 31 states and in federal and military 
prisons, any jurisdiction that tries something new will be scrutinized as a 
test lab.

The push for change comes because lethal injection, introduced 40 years ago as 
more efficient and humane than the electric chair or gas chamber, has not met 
that promise. Indeed, it has sometimes resulted in spectacles that rival the 
ones it was meant to avert.

One pitfall is that execution teams must find a vein to infuse, a process that 
can be excruciating. In February, an Alabama execution team gave up after 
trying for more than two hours on an inmate whose blood vessels had been 
damaged by chemotherapy and drug abuse. His lawyer accused the team of opening 
an artery and puncturing the prisoner???s bladder. The state later said it 
would not try again to execute him.

Lethal injection also involves drugs that, if given incorrectly, can result in 
suffering. One is a paralyzing agent, and the other stops the heart. The 
paralyzing drug was included in the original plan for lethal injection partly 
to make the process look peaceful and less disturbing to witnesses, by 
preventing the prisoner from thrashing around. Both it and the heart-stopping 
drug are supposed to be given after a powerful sedative has rendered the person 
unconscious, but if the sedative does not work properly, the other two drugs 
can cause significant pain.

Barbiturates were originally used for sedation, but manufacturers began 
refusing to sell them for executions. So states tried substituting other drugs. 
Some were ineffective and left prisoners moaning in what appeared to be 
prolonged agony.

Nebraska and Nevada hope to soon start using the opioid fentanyl as a sedative. 
Illegal use has made it a scourge of national death statistics, but medically 
it is an important painkiller and anesthetic. Defense lawyers in Nebraska have 
argued that fentanyl comes under a federal law that limits its distribution to 
lifesaving purposes, and that it is therefore illegal for a prison clinic to 
distribute it for an execution. A trial seeking information about the source of 
the fentanyl is scheduled for May 14.

In March, Oklahoma's attorney general, Mike Hunter, said that using nitrogen 
was "the safest, the best and the most effective method available." There is 
scant scientific data to back up that statement. What little is known about 
human death by nitrogen comes from industrial and medical accidents and its use 
in suicide. In accidents, when people have been exposed to high levels of 
nitrogen and little air in an enclosed space, they have died quickly. In some 
cases co-workers who rushed in to rescue them also collapsed and died.

Nitrogen itself is not poisonous, but someone who inhales it, with no air, will 
pass out quickly, probably in less than a minute, and die soon after - from 
lack of oxygen. The same is true of other physiologically inert gases, 
including helium and argon, which kill only by replacing oxygen.

A report from the United States Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board 
said that breathing "an oxygen-deficient atmosphere" can knock a person 
unconscious after just one or two breaths, and that "the exposed person has no 
warning and cannot sense that the oxygen level is too low."

(Although nitrogen itself would be novel, gas chambers have existed as an 
American execution method since the 1920s. The last case was in 1999, when 
Arizona used clouds of hydrogen cyanide to execute an inmate. Coughing and 
hacking, he took 18 minutes to die.)

Death from nitrogen is thought to be painless. It should prevent the condition 
that causes feelings of suffocation: the buildup of carbon dioxide from not 
being able to exhale. Humans are highly sensitive to carbon dioxide - too much 
brings on the panicky feeling of not being able to breathe. Somewhat 
surprisingly, the lack of oxygen doesn't trigger that same reflex. Someone 
breathing pure nitrogen can still exhale carbon dioxide and therefore should 
not have the sensation of smothering.

Before passing out, a person may feel lightheaded, dizzy or maybe even a bit 
euphoric, and vision may dim.

Dr. Charles D. Blanke, who has studied data on physician-assisted dying, said 
it was not at all clear that nitrogen inhalation would bring a peaceful death. 
Dr. Blanke, a medical oncologist and professor at Oregon Health and Science 
University, said he had consulted colleagues in pulmonary medicine and 
anesthesiology, and they had concerns that carbon dioxide actually could build 
up and cause feelings of suffocation.

Nitrogen is not used in states where medically assisted dying is legal; those 
patients, who are terminally ill, usually drink a huge dose of barbiturates.

Veterinary experts generally do not recommend nitrogen or other inert gases for 
euthanizing mammals. Responses to the gas vary according to species, and in its 
2013 guidelines, the American Veterinary Medical Association said, "Current 
evidence indicates this method is unacceptable because animals may experience 
distressing side effects before loss of consciousness."

Unlike lethal injection, the use of nitrogen would not require that the 
execution team dig around for a vein. An anesthesiologist, who requested 
anonymity because medical societies bar members from participating in 
executions or providing information to encourage them, said that nitrogen 
inhalation was less cruel than lethal injection. And since it presumably would 
involve no paralytic agent, witnesses would be able to see whether the person 
seemed to be suffering, he said.

Seizures might occur from inhaling nitrogen, he said. But if the technique 
appears to go smoothly, he predicted that other states would quickly adopt it.

In fact, according to state documents, in May of 2016, an Arizona company sent 
a sales-pitch letter for nitrogen gas executions to Nebraska corrections 
officials. Among the standout features of its Euthypoxia Chamber: It "produces 
calm and sedation followed by inebriation and euphoria;" it "requires no 
medical expertise;" and it guarantees "the demise of any mammalian life in 4 
minutes."

In passing along the letter to another official, a state corrections department 
executive hand-wrote: "I'm not intending to respond - just thought it was an 
odd correspondence."

Ms. Moreno, of the Berkeley Law Death Penalty Clinic, said that implementing 
nitrogen gas is not as simple as states suggest. There are different grades of 
nitrogen, including medical and industrial, she said, with commensurate 
purities and regulations. Observers of the execution would need protection. 
Officials would have to figure out how to safely clear nitrogen from the room 
before a physician could declare death and the staff could remove the body.

The Final Exit Network, a volunteer organization that supports the rights of 
people with terminal illness or intractable suffering to end their lives, 
considers nitrogen inhalation a reasonable method, and directs people to 
information about it. The technique involves putting a plastic bag over one???s 
head and pumping in nitrogen.

Janis Landis, president of the network, said: "The science behind inert gases 
is quite well settled. Any inert gas, one can breathe it in, in place of 
oxygen. You don't have air hunger. You can keep breathing. You pass out and you 
die."

She said that in the past, many people had used helium to end their lives, from 
tanks they purchased at party-supply stores that stock them to inflate 
balloons.

But some suppliers, realizing their product was being used for suicide, began 
mixing in air, making the helium less effective, so nitrogen became the 
preferred choice.

Ms. Landis said, "People opposed to the death penalty, scratching their heads 
about how this could work, I think they???re mixing up their views about 
whether this should be done versus whether it can be done."

Experts on state-sanctioned execution methods suggest that the search for a 
palatable means of carrying out death sentences is itself uniquely American. 
Aside from the United States, the relatively few countries who execute 
prisoners typically do so by hanging, beheading or firing squad - methods which 
most Americans find repugnant. Robert Dunham, executive director of the Death 
Penalty Information Center, said that such a reaction exemplifies the collision 
between 2 contradictory traits that streak through the national identity.

"One is a tradition of tenderness, with us being the safeguard of human dignity 
and decency," he said. "The other is a culture of violence. And when you're 
concerned about human rights and dignity, that carries an aversion to gruesome 
killings by the state. But the death penalty is inherently violent - so those 
traditions now are really at loggerheads."

(source: New York Times)