Nitrogen Hypoxia Execution: How it would Feel 

I passed out once from helium. I was a young teenager, doing the squeaky voice thing. I had taken multiple HUGE deep breaths from a huge balloon to see how squeaky my voice would get. I was utterly unconscious, completely oblivious to all sensations. If I had been wearing a helium mask, I would have died quickly knowing nothing. Thankfully I was still breathing and came to my senses fairly quickly. I don't know the difference between what happened to me and what might have happened if this had been nitrogen.

Glad I found this channel! The macabre fascination with the limits of human experience, the exploration of the feeling, empathic side as opposed to just facts. Asking the question, "What if that were me?", as opposed to reading numbers with a completely detached point of view. Reminds me of why I became so interested in WW1, especially Dan Carlin's telling of it. There is a very specific itch that we here seem to share. A form of honesty that is often shied from.

This is the second time I’ve come across a video of yours. You are very articulate, and well spoken which makes your videos very easy to watch/listen to.

When pilots learn about hypoxia they are told that that they have between 9-15 seconds of useful consciousness at an altitude of 45000' due to how 'thin' the air is at altitude. Although it seems strange that healthy people can hold their breath for 3-5 minutes but I've just assumed that taking breaths with insufficient levels of oxygen rapidly flushes out the oxygen left in your bloodstream quickly incapacitating someone. Back when I was suicidal I had determined that nitrogen asphyxiation was the way I wanted to go because I was under the impression that within 1 or 2 painless breaths I would be essentially be out cold before I knew it (I had also heard this from accounts of industrial accidents which are briefly mentioned in the video). Now for better or worse I never got my hands on a pressurized tank of pure nitrogen hence why I'm typing this comment, however, I always thought that would be a peaceful way to go. Now this video has called some of my previous assumptions into question. However, I have a hypothesis that maybe some details on the execution were missing, given that Smith was not a willing participant he may have been holding his breath and not fully inhaled and exhaled the pure nitrogen before vomiting and subsequently choking on his vomit which then inhibited him from taking any more breaths. Then again I'm no expert and those are just my initial thoughts.

U.K calling...,Thanks for your videos Jade. I really like them. They are very informative. ❤🌹👋

Lady explained death process clearly 😮

At the blast furnace i work,3 cleaners where on the 10th floor of a coal pulverizer plant,it was very windy and cold,they seeked shielding from the wind so the entered the chamber the bag filters they where supposed to clean,little did they know the chamber was still flooded with nitrogen ,gas monitors where off 2 died inside while one passed out at the door

They said if he hadn't tried to hold his breath it would have been quicker.

Jade your voice is so calming and soothing. I could fall asleep to you reading a dictionary. You should seriously consider a career as an audiobook reader.

As a master diver, i assume it would feel like getting an extreme case of the bends, not horrible, not great either, basically like hammered drunk with some serious discomfort, but at a much larger scale than I could personally fathom

Thanks for the vid

Love your videos, please keep them up! Much love, 20 year old convict from upstate NY

This was your best video 👍

How this as an execution method even came to be is in a joke of itself😓like yea sure unconscious "in seconds". yet they never thought about the outliers. A pretty gruesome death if you think about it

Great Video Jade ❤ I watched the post-execution press conference as well as hearing the witness statements. My conclusion is that this was not how the state predicted the execution procedure to unfold. It was indeed grim and cruel, both to observe and I can't even imagine to experience. Granted the crime(s) committed that lead to the execution were terrible, but the death penalty is simply retribution and vengeance. As well as irreversible if the inmate was wrongfully convicted. Let's abolish the death penalty and be the civilized country that we're proported to be.

He didn't give any of this consideration to his victim. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Hi, Jade. Thank you for providing the RU-vid community with your channel. And thank you for sharing some of your personal thoughts. I agree that capital punishment in the United States was/is not an effective deterrent and that it is brutally expensive, both in legal costs and in technical costs. That having been said, the handful of existing Canadian and Japanese studies argue that capital punishment (until its abolishment in Canada) actually was a fairly effective deterrent. I've long wondered why. Luckily, my brother is profoundly interested in criminal psychology and he explained that in order for deterrence to work you need two things: severity and _consistency._ Severity alone, no matter how great, will not deter anybody. This is why nuclear deterrence fails so often in the real world. To cite just one example, Britain's nuclear weapons certainly didn't deter Argentina from starting the Falklands War. There was one very important difference between the United States and Canada when it came to capital punishment, and that was consistency of application. In the U.S. each state legislature decides whether or not to even keep it on the books and each state has varying rules and procedures pertaining to the application of capital punishment. In at least one state, for example, a judge cannot hand down a sentence of death unless the jury unanimously agrees. Therefore, a would-be perpetrator of piracy, treason, terrorism, or first-degree murder knows that a sentence of death isn't very likely. Of course, somewhere in the back of the condemned's mind is the possibility of nearly endless appeals if the sentence is handed down. By contrast, the Criminal Code of Canada applies equally across all provinces and territories and when capital punishment still remained on the books it was married up to a law of mandatory minimum sentencing. A judge's hands were tied. If the accused was convicted of anything that was considered a capital crime (some examples in previous paragraph), that was it. A judge would say something like, _"The jury finds you guilty of_ (let's say terrorism). _Unfortunately, a sentence of death by hanging is the only one I may legally hand you. Is there anything you still wish to say to the court?"_ D.B. Cooper would be quite the dead guy if he committed the same crime in Canada and was caught. And the...ah-hem... estimated wait time would have been considerably shorter than in the vast majority of U.S. states.

Hombre, realmente lo arruinó, por eso afortunadamente sufrió. Los gases como el nitrógeno son directamente peligrosos porque su cuerpo literalmente no los detecta, su cuerpo solo detecta dióxido de carbono, pero con gases como el nitrógeno, el monóxido de carbono, etc., literalmente, simplemente se desmaya y nunca se despierta. Entonces, para que esté jadeando o lo que sea, hizo algo mal; Esto debería haber sido como cuando te dan el gas de la felicidad en el dentista, excepto que no te despiertas.

Wow. Instead of upping the Nitrogen content of regular air step by step, they just slapped an intimidating big mask on him - while he had been already quite nervous and anxious - and then directly went full on in with 100% Nitrogen. This happens if uneducated personal combined with lack of thought by experts and an already anxious inmate come together. This whole thing should had been cancelled from the beginning on. If a living being should be put unconcious via Nitrogen, things need to start slowly instead of bang on 100%. Its already enough to change the Nitrogen content minimal to start induce dizzyness. After dizzyness comes fatigue, after fatigue comes a short phase of sleep and followup unconciousness and then, due to asphyxiation, death. This process takes about 15 - 20 minutes. While unconciousness should be achieved at around 8 to 10 when doing things in a slower pace and step by step. Also some sort of sedative to ease anxiety should had been administered. This cannot be broken down to a couple of deep breaths and death in 2 - 3 minutes while being at 100% conciousness to start with. This is plain incompetence. The "experts" that put up this schedule should be brought up to court for ignorance and stupidity and violating constitutional rights. Aswel as the people in charge to not stop this botched mess.

Thank you!

they should make the judge watch it, and if its found that the prisoner wasnt guilty- then They are guilty of the same crime

Very interesting - thanks. I'd been under the impression that N2 asphyxiation would be painless and not traumatic. It seems I was wrong.

Jade can we see your list of banned words?

I'm genuinely curious where you got the idea that 'any oxygen would CAUSE the feeling of suffocation'. Now, I could be wrong, because it's been a few years since medical school and diving school, but the feeling of suffocation is caused by excess carbon dioxide in the bloodstream. So the key part is ventilating that out.

That was so sad that humans can do that to another person regardless of what they have done.

Disturbing that the prison employees have a rally and celebration of this. Sick as Smith himself.

interesting speculation

It seems to me that using carbon monoxide would have been more humane. They say that it feels like going to sleep. i guess that would have been more dangerous for the witnesses though.

Sounds like a version of waterboarding.. suffocation cant possibly be humane imo

sounds horrid, hoping this doesnt happen to innocent people who may be on d.row

Morbid curiosity

Ask their victims how much they care about this

USA's system is sick

Wonder if he thought of his victim then ???

The victim gasped for air but that gets overlooked

10:30 Looks odd

I like this channel a lot, mostly because of the objective way that it presents practices that, in my view, are barbaric. However I can understand that less evolved or less educated humans may find solace or a sense of retribution or even peace in the death of someone that has wronged you directly or indirectly. I live in a 3rd world country, and for at least 40 years, we've deemed these practices just too inhumane and senseless.

Brutal and inhumane

Humans are evolving damn

Hi from England, I do feel if a country has the death penalty then it must be humane, it shouldn't be revengeful or painful. We are supposed to be more enlightened and humane, but this sounds like anything but. The fact that the state royally screwed up his first execution, he should have been given life in prison, it seems like a very spiteful death.

The amount of bias here is such a turn off, I’m sorry. 14:34 “…after the prison employees launched their own rally in celebration (of the execution).” You state repeatedly how the eyewitness accounts were, in a sense, ‘shrouded’ by various circumstances. How could you make such a baseless claim? I get you’re against the death penalty and state-sanctioned executions, but this line completely ruined the video for me and you’ve lost an ostensive follower.

the bends on land - basic driving knowledge

THIS has changed my views on "creative execution ideas" by staff who beat their spouses. Are incompetent to do executions and dream up tortured ideas. On 1000 ways to die. Someone in a bodysuit got nitrogen instead of oxygen. The show said he was dead b4 he hit the floor. This must be where they got their misinformation from. There's quicker, quieter ways to do a humane execution. Fentanyl is quick to render unconscious. Stop breathing. But it's not a quiet, quick deàth. They've tried it and they mixed it with a low level benzo and it took nearly 39 minutes. The best would be a numbing gel to base of neck. Then an automatic set of blades to an apparatus. Severing nerves for heart, lunch, consciousness. Dead instantly. Asleep in moments. Without need for any needles. Nasal spray, sprayed into mouth. Etc. I don't want any part of assisting in ones death.

You lose consciousness fairly quickly.....

The Death Penalty is wrong in every and every way.😢

Rope is cheaper.

Best way is close range gunshot to head

Death sentence should be carried out a month after conviction

Roll Tide

First!!

Very high tech. Alabama is leading the way!

Capital punishment has been proven to not be a deterrent. Ok, and....?

Just one bullet thru the head is effective cheap and gives always a good result...

Ziklon b

lol censorship asf

They said if he hadn't tried to hold his breath it would have been quicker.