Death penalty states unmoved by botched execution
Source: AP
McALESTER, Okla. (AP) — Oklahoma's last execution went so badly that the state tried to cancel it before it was over. With the inmate writhing while the lethal drugs seeped into his body, his executioners drew the viewing gallery curtains, concealing what the warden later described as "a bloody mess."
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Although Gov. Mary Fallin suspended further executions so that Lockett's death and Oklahoma's methods could be reviewed, the state held what amounted to a ribbon-cutting ceremony for its overhauled death chamber only months later and is scheduled to resume killing inmates in mid-January. And rather than causing states to question whether capital punishment is just or worth the risk of subjecting someone to a potentially agonizing death, the prolonged executions and problems states have had securing lethal injection drugs have led them to explore new, old and more efficient ways of killing, including gassing inmates.
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Lockett's execution did little or nothing to dampen support for the death penalty in deeply conservative Oklahoma, which has killed more inmates than any other state except Texas since the 1976 reinstatement of the death penalty. In October, officials gave media tours of the renovated execution unit at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary, which got a $104,000 overhaul after Lockett's death and now stands in sharp contrast to the rest of the shabby, 106-year-old facility.
Not content with just the upgrades to the prison and lethal injection equipment, though, Oklahoma's Republican-led House conducted a study on the use of nitrogen gas to execute inmates and is expected to consider legislation early next year that would make Oklahoma the first state to adopt hypoxia by gas — the forced deprivation of oxygen — as a legal execution method.
Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/death-penalty-states-unmoved-botched-execution-151537248.html
It is sickening that they would consider using nitrogen gas to kill someone. Conservative states are still big on the death penalty and now moving into uncharted territory. The article mentioned that Utah approved brining back the firing squad.
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The cost effective arguments, the torture arguments, those are all well and good. But when you get down to it, it's about the state murdering people. Make it super easy, get rid of all the complications, strap people to a table, put a hood over them (not necessarily like a bag, but like a ventilation hood), gas 'em. They gently fall asleep, no convulsing, no rapid breathing, they just sleep and stop breathing after a bit.
As far as that DIY article, nice, I've always wondered what it would take to build your own nitrogen generator. Not for the purposes we've discussed here, of course, but to play with it, freeze stuff, break it, etc. 
