Less than a year ago, Ohio made it illegal to kill household pets by suffocating them with gas or non-narcotic inhalants, and a minority of lawmakers in both chambers of Congress passed the law in 2022. All but 100 people supported the bill.
A Republican-backed bill introduced Tuesday that would add nitrogen hypoxia as a method of execution is a double standard, some Democrats say.
Senate Bill 164, which went into effect nine months ago, generally prohibits “animal shelters from using gas chambers to destroy livestock.”
Senate Minority Leader Nikki Antonio (D-Lakewood), a longtime opponent of the death penalty, called recently introduced House Bill 392 “barbaric.”
“We in the Legislature said this is a cruel and inhumane act against animals,” Antonio said in an interview. “Yet, there are people who suggest doing this to death row inmates.”
Ohio's recent legislation regarding pet euthanasia does not directly mention nitrogen gas. However, the American Veterinary Medical Association's 2020 guidance recommended against using nitrogen hypoxia therapy in mammals, excluding pigs, turkeys, and chickens, calling it “distressing” in some conditions.
Rep. Phil Plummer (R-Dayton), along with Rep. Brian Stewart (R-Asheville), led a legislative effort to add nitrogen hypoxia, or asphyxiation with nitrogen gas, as an appropriate secondary execution procedure. are doing. Tuesday's introduction of HB 392 comes days after Alabama became the first state to use HB 392 to execute a man.
Plummer voted for the animal cruelty bill last Congress, but said he doesn't think it's a fair line to draw. “When you compare dogs, it's like apples and oranges,” Plummer said in an interview.
He said he believes there is too much focus on death row inmates rather than victims and their families.
“I'm tired of liberals saying, 'Oh, this person suffered and convulsed,'” he says. “I mean, if you stab someone 39 times and kill them, where's the sympathy for that person?”
So far, 11 other Republicans have signed on as co-sponsors of HB 392, supporters said. Since lethal injection is currently the only codified method, each legislature would need to pass some changes to how states carry out the death penalty.
Witnesses to a nitrogen-assisted execution in Alabama on Jan. 25 said 58-year-old Kenneth Smith “trembled and writhed” during the procedure. But state officials said it was “textbook” and that more than 40 other death row inmates have requested nitrogen gas as a means of execution.
