Letters to the Editor: Could Alabama export its new execution method?
To the editor: Alabama’s new method of execution — suffocating the condemned with nitrogen — should be interesting to the nearby state of South Carolina. (“Alabama plans to carry out first nitrogen gas execution. How will it work and what are the risks?” Jan. 21)
More than 20 members of its state Legislature are making efforts to classify abortion as murder, a crime punishable by death.
The method of causing death, however, is a problem. Should they use the electric chair, hanging, the gas chamber or a firing squad? This suffocation via forced nitrogen gas inhalation seems like a humane alternative.
Alabama could offer its services to other states. It could be the first mass execution of women in North America since the Salem witch trials of the 1600s.
For the record:
12:38 p.m. Jan. 25, 2024In a previous version of Jan. 25’s letters to the editor, the final sentence of Murray Margolis’ letter was mistranscribed as, “The two periods are very similar — then, religious zealots were murdered in the name of God, and it could happen again today.” It should have read, “The two periods are very similar — then, religious zealots murdered women in the name of God, and it could happen again today.”
Those women were hanged. This nitrogen gas suffocation sounds better. The two periods are very similar — then, religious zealots were murdered in the name of God, and it could happen again today.
Murray Margolis, Dana Point
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To the editor: Alabama’s nitrogen gas execution is an unnecessary and possibly cruel experiment.
This nation has used hanging, firing squads, cyanide gas, electric chairs and lethal injection for executions. The past several years The Times has reported problems with obtaining the drugs for lethal injection, difficulty in their administration and allegations of cruelty.
The Times has also reported on the national problem with fentanyl overdose deaths. Fentanyl is available, inexpensive and easily administered. It is also more humane than these other execution methods.
Someone should alert the various bureaus of prisons and state governments about the existence of this drug.
Jeffrey Schneider, Glendale
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To the editor: Capital punishment, the legal extermination of a human life, is still practiced in some of our states, such as Alabama.
That said, many people have not lost hope that our Supreme Court will finally put an end to this obscene and barbaric anachronism, which makes our country appear unenlightened and unforgiving.
According to Amnesty International, of the 193 member states of the United Nations, 54 still maintain the death penalty, and the most known executions that took place in the last two years happened in China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the United States, in that order.
So, perhaps in 2024, we can aspire to join the countries that no longer murder its miscreants —the countries that no longer abdicate hope and instead hope for redemption.
Fengar Gael, Irvine
