Arizona to execute inmate with Zyklon B

Post Reply New Topic

Dear Lord

It's always Abbott, DeSatan, Ducey or Kemp.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9636909/Arizona-prepares-execute-death-row-inmates-Zyklon-B-deadly-gas-used-Nazis.html

Fascists use Zyklon-B for executions doesn't seem like news.

It was chosen to own the libs?

Not that I agree with execution, but...

Zyklon B was a trade name for a cyanide salt. I believe sodium cyanide. I doubt they have stashed canisters from WWII, so really it's just cyanide. This is media finding a way to make something more distasteful. Although I disagree with capital punishment I also very much disagree with media exaggeration to get clicks.

Going the Nazi route I see.

The Swastika was and still is a sign of divinity or spirituality. But see if you can walk through a black township in South Africa waving a swastika and see how far you will get?

Those in Arizona approving Zyklon B know what it was used for in WWII and know how it will be perceived.

Is Zyklon B fast working, or did the death row inmate suffer needlessly?

There is little medical research about lethal gas’s effects on the human body, but executions using gas have taken much longer than other methods, according to Fordham University law professor Deborah Denno.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2 ... execution/

Given the man who developed Zyklon B, Bruno Tesch, was excuted in 1946 for supplying this for use on humans it might contravene international laws using it on prisoners.

Aside from symbolism what is the real opposition to Zyclon B as a means of execution?

It is not always fatal to exposure, which can be a problem in executions. Back in WWII, there were victims that survived the gas chambers only to be burned alive in the crematorium ovens in concentration camps. The German guards did not care where they died, only that they died to fill their quotas. Humans can be truly evil sometimes.

Hydrogen cyanide gas blocks certain enzyme functions in the respiratory cycle. That inhibition prevents the body from producing ATP which is needed to power the body. Thus, you drop dead literally. The process is much quicker if given as a concentrated liquid solution into the body, rather than breathing the gas form.

If a cyanide salt decomposes/reacts before it is used in the execution, the amount of hydrogen cyanide that can be produced from it will also decrease. A certain amount of hydrogen cyanide is required to shut down the enzymes. If that is not met, the person is damaged but can still live. An famous example of someone surviving cyanide is Gregory Rasputin. He was poisoned with potassium cyanide in his drink, but did not die from that event.

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/rasputi ... ll-1.67169

It becomes a legal nightmare if the prisoner can survive the gas chamber process.

FYI - At a previous teaching job, I had to deal with thirty pounds of cyanide salts that were being improperly stored by another chemist. When I found them, they were being stored under a leaky sink. Good thing the containers were sealed well or I would not be here to type this. That was just the top of the iceberg on the safety issues that I had to fix there.

All this underlines is the Arizona government people who approved this are looking for ways to make prisoners on death row suffer before they die. It's not just the prospect of botched executions or prolonged agony its also about making people sit in a cell for years stewing over the prospect of breathing HCN and the mental torture it creates,

But from what I hear Arizona are among the most prone to violent crime so perhaps this is a deterrent.

SNP also known as sodium nitroprusside is one of the most potent drugs we use in hospitals.
It's a rapid and very potent way of dropping arterial blood pressure.
Infusions are wrapped in alfoil to prevent light from converting it to cyanide.
Properly dosed SNP will cause death from cerebral hypoperfusion in a matter of seconds.
I'm no expert but I imagine being gassed by potassium cyanide would be much more distressing than receiving a bolus of SNP.

For rapid humane killing of mammals I think Pentobarbitone is the kindest choice of drugs.
It is used for euthenaising animals and causes rapid death without distress or excitation.