Jewish Leaders Say NO to Alabama's Nitrogen Hypoxia/Gas Chamber!
Alabama Governor Kay Ivey
The first experimental use of nitrogen hypoxia to execute a prisoner is currently scheduled for January 25, 2024 in Alabama. Add your name to say NO to smothering prisoners with gas.
[See operative petition language below the following background.]
If you are NOT a Jewish community leader, please add your name here: bit.ly/NoGasChamberDPA
BACKGROUND
Alabama has set January 25, 2024 as the date to try out its newly developed experimental method of executing prisoners, inflicting "nitrogen hypoxia" via a sealed face mask that the prisoner will be forced to wear. This will be the first-ever execution using nitrogen hypoxia.
Alabama's new nitrogen hypoxia is an experimental extension of the concept of the "gas chamber," a method of killing which smothers a prisoner by replacing oxygen with nitrogen gas. This has never been tried before. A new protocol for carrying out an execution using nitrogen hypoxia was released with extensive redactions. This Nov 6, 2023 article spells out the current issues.
- Read more about Kenneth Smith, the subject of the nitrogen hypoxia experiment, here.
- Read more about the lack of transparency in Alabama executions, here.
- Concern has arisen regarding the safety of this new method for those who must be present in or near the execution chamber, including corrections officers and the prisoner's spiritual advisor. Issues of concern are addressed here.
- What could go wrong? This Marshall Project article spells it out...
- Southern Jewish Life Opinion: Alabama marking Tu B’Shevat with first-ever experimental gassing execution
- Montgomery Advertiser: Jews must speak out against Alabama's planned nitrogen gas executions
JEWISH COMMUNITY STATEMENT OPPOSING THE GAS CHAMBER
NOTE: This statement may be edited for clarity or to add additional information.
Sponsored by
To:
Alabama Governor Kay Ivey
From:
[Your Name]
We understand that in Alabama, the experimental nitrogen hypoxia gas chamber/execution protocol has been completed and may soon be used to execute Kenneth Smith, the subject of a failed attempt at lethal injection in November, 2022.
We recognize that Mr. Smith is guilty of murder and we pray for the memory of Elizabeth Sennett, the victim in this case, and for all of those who love and miss her. Even so, we call for a halt to all executions, particularly those by suffocation.
Jewish tradition presents somewhat contradictory statements regarding the death penalty. While the Torah permits the death penalty, the Talmud, in Tractate Sanhedrin, imposes severe limits on capital punishment even where the crime is murder. Contemporary US law does not meet the standards for fairness and accuracy as articulated in Jewish law. Today we are writing not about the death penalty as a whole, but about proposed forms of execution.
Certainly there are members of Jewish communities who support the death penalty in concept or in practice. However, we stand united in opposition to the introduction of the gas suffocation as a form of execution in Alabama. We do not suggest comparisons to the atrocities of Nazi Germany under which millions of our relatives were murdered, many by suffocation in sealed chambers. Still, we cannot imagine it possible that Jewish communities anywhere could stand by while prisoners are executed in our names, using any variation of that mechanism.
Therefore, the undersigned Rabbis, Cantors and other leaders and members of the Jewish community call on you to reject the conduct of executions by suffocation using a mask or in any sort of gas chamber in your state.