Witnesses watched through a window at an Alabama prison as Kenneth Eugene Smith became the nation's first person to be put to death using nitrogen gas.
Every method of execution requires the person’s participation in some way.
Once that mask is on and the nitrogen starts, you have the choice between dying in one of the least painful ways that we know of, or dying in one of the most painful ways.
I don’t know if this guy thought that he could find another loophole and delay his execution, but all he accomplished was making his last moments on Earth miserable.
Calling it torture is to say that he has no agency, which is obviously untrue.
Every method of execution requires the person’s participation in some way.
Once that mask is on and the nitrogen starts, you have the choice between dying in one of the least painful ways that we know of, or dying in one of the most painful ways.
I don’t know if this guy thought that he could find another loophole and delay his execution, but all he accomplished was making his last moments on Earth miserable.
Calling it torture is to say that he has no agency, which is obviously untrue.
It’s definitionally coercion if the only other option is death. You do not have agency in that situation. End of story.
Death isn’t a choice here, he’s being executed.