Say NO to Nitrogen Hypoxia/Gas Chamber!

Alabama, Louisiana, and Ohio Legislators & Governors, (and others TBD, as-needed)

* The first experimental use of nitrogen hypoxia to execute a prisoner took place January 25, 2024 in Alabama.

* Alabama has now scheduled the gas suffocation execution of Alan Miller for September 26, 2024.

* Legislators in Kansas & Nebraska rejected the idea this year, the bill in Ohio is stalled, and legislators in Louisiana allowed gas suffocation executions as a back-up method earlier this year.

Sign the petition to say NO to smothering prisoners with gas.

[See operative petition language below the following background. If you are a Jewish clergy person, community leader, or member of a Jewish community, click here.]

Alabama conducted the first experimental nitrogen gas execution on January 25, 2024, inflicting "nitrogen asphyxia" via a sealed face mask that the prisoner was  forced to wear. The first-ever execution using nitrogen asphyxia was a "textbook" success according to Alabama prison officials, who suggested other states should give it a try, and they would help. Non-government witnesses described a horrific ad torturous experience that should be found unconstitutional.

Additional updates will be forthcoming:

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...

Arizona refurbished its gas chamber in 2021 and is prepared to use cyanide gas to execute any current death row prisoner who was sentenced to be executed prior to November, 1992. Arizona resumed executions earlier this year.

ALSO: The prisoner currently set for this experimentation is Alan Miller in Alabama.

AND: In Oklahoma, they are still working to figure it out, but they are working on it.

AND: Legislators in Nebraska and Kansas rejected the idea this year (2024), a bill in Ohio is stalled, and in Louisiana, legislation has been introduced to bring nitrogen hypoxia as a method of execution in that state.

Members of the Jewish community who indicate so when they sign on to this petition are also adding their name to the following stand-alone statement:

JEWISH COMMUNITY STATEMENT OPPOSING THE GAS CHAMBER

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 laws do 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 in states using the gas chamber who support the death penalty in concept or in practice. However, we stand united in opposition to the introduction of the gas chamber as a form of execution. 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 by the state in our names, using any variation of that mechanism.

Therefore, the undersigned Rabbis, Cantors and other leaders the Jewish community call on you to reject the conduct of executions by suffocation in any sort of gas chamber anywhere in the United States.

Additional Background:

Alabama has never used a gas chamber, but plans to experiment using a mask over the prisoner's face on January 25, 2024.

Executions in Arizona were generally carried out by hanging until 1934, when the first execution by gas chamber was carried out in Arizona. In 1992, after the Donald Harding execution, Arizona voters amended the constitution to have lethal injection as the method of execution, but for crimes committed before November, 1992, the prisoner could pick gas. In 1999 when Walter LaGrand, a German National, picked gas and challenged it, the US Supreme Court held that if a prisoner picks gas, he or she cannot challenge that method as to its constitutionality. Walter LaGrand was gassed despite protests by the German government.

NOTE: This petition may be edited for clarity or to add additional information.


Sponsored by
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Death Penalty Action

To: Alabama, Louisiana, and Ohio Legislators & Governors, (and others TBD, as-needed)
From: [Your Name]

[Delivery language to be adjusted according to the target of delivery.]

[For Alabama] We understand that in Alabama, the experimental nitrogen hypoxia gas chamber/execution protocol has been tried once and may soon be used again. We call for a halt to all executions, particularly those by suffocation.

* USA Today: https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2024/02/19/alabama-execution-nitrogen-gas-witness-cruel-torture/72616304007/

* Associated Press: https://apnews.com/article/nitrogen-execution-alabama-inmate-lawsuit-7043bff9563f99d083b189ff7d39253c

Even the victim family members who witnessed in support of the execution were disturbed, as noted in this New York Times article: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/01/us/alabama-nitrogen-execution-kenneth-smith-witnesses.html

[Members of the Jewish community who indicate so when they sign on are also adding their name to the following stand-alone statement]

STATEMENT OPPOSING THE GAS CHAMBER

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 chamber as a form of execution. 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 by the state 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.