No method of execution is humane

The recent execution of a man on death row in the US state of Alabama has again drawn attention to methods of execution of persons condemned to death.

The globally accepted view is that in countries where the death penalty still exists, executions should be humane and painless.

The execution in Alabama was done with nitrogen gas. It was the first time the method, called nitrogen hypoxia, is known to have been used for legal executions.

The man who was executed was Kenneth Eugene Smith, who had committed a murder 36 years ago.

The nitrogen method was chosen after he survived an hours-long attempt to execute him with lethal injection in 2022.

This time, it was promised that he would become unconscious in a few seconds and would die peacefully in two minutes. But it was reported that he shook and writhed for at least two minutes and died after 22 minutes. The state authorities, however, called it a “historic breakthrough”.

Different methods of execution have been tried in many countries. They include firing squads, electric chairs, lethal injections, gas chambers and hanging from the tree, gallows and scaffolds.

The intent, given on record, was to make the execution humane and effective for the executioners and the death quick and painless for the victim.

They must have been effective in most cases, except in some like Smith’s when it was a long process. No-one has returned from the other side to tell the story, but scientific simulations have shown that they are all painful.

Injections, which are claimed to be humane, have actually been compared to water-boarding and burning at the stake. Smith said in his botched execution he was repeatedly poked with needles and placed in “an inverted crucifixion position.” Human rights activists have said the executioners are “looking for ways to pretend that executions are medical and modern, not brutal and violent.”

No killing can be kind. Executions are a physical torture when they are carried out, and mental torture, sometimes for years, before they are carried out. Even when the method is claimed to be modern, the idea behind the killing is primitive.

In India, there is no pretence of being modern and humane and the method and the idea are both primitive. Most countries in the world have either abolished the death penalty or have suspended it. India has recently increased the number of offences that attract the death penalty.

The ideas that continue to drive the system of justice is, unfortunately, punishment and retribution, not repentance and reformation, as they should be. Even the most painless and effortless execution cannot be humane, because killing in not human, whatever the method. A country that gives legal sanction for killing cannot call itself humane and civilised.