I know you can come up with something even more grisly if you try. Dropping prisoner into glass tank full of piranhas, for example.

Would be humane. The condemned is inside a sealed chamber, and carbon dioxide is pumped in. It displaces oxygen and the person essentially just goes to sleep. I don’t know the specifics, and I don’t want to do it myself, but it’s an alternative.


That said, I’ve become almost completely against the death penalty, if for no other reason than you can’t undo it later if you find out you made a mistake.

When you exchange breaths you exhale CO2.
If the CO2 level rises in the body the brain goes into panic mode and tries to breath..
If you keep the CO2 levels constant in the body but remove the O2 you just go to sleep from Hypoxia, see the white light and bye bye..
Nitrogen replacing O2 does this, same with Nitrous Oxide...
No O2... well then you get the picture...
m

I'll take Nitrous oxide, please.