‘Unsettling reminder’: Jewish group criticizes gas execution proposal in Nebraska

LINCOLN, Neb. (KLKN) – A Nebraska senator is looking to add asphyxiation by nitrogen gas as a method for executing death-row inmates.

But a Jewish anti-death penalty group said the method is a painful reminder of the Holocaust.

Sen. Loren Lippincott introduced Legislative Bill 970, saying the method is “very humane” and “painless.”

“From tests that have been done on nitrogen and also on helium, a person loses consciousness,” he said. “And after approximately three minutes, the person is going to be dead.”

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Lippincott said the resources needed for lethal injections, the state’s current execution method, are scarce.

He added that sometimes, injections fail when an IV can’t be inserted into an inmate’s veins.

The Nebraska Legislature repealed the death penalty in 2015, but voters reinstated it the next year.

“Nebraska currently has 11 people that are on the death row, as of last September,” Lippincott said. “So, this is something that we need to add to our arsenal in order to carry out the will and wishes of the Nebraska people.”

The nation’s first nitrogen execution took place in January in Alabama.

The Associated Press was present for Kenneth Smith’s execution and said the gas flowed for about 15 minutes.

It also reported that Smith had violent, “thrashing spasms and seizure-like movements” during the execution.

But Lippincott said Smith “fought the procedure” and held his breath.

He also said a letter from the Alabama attorney general disputed the AP’s reporting.

“People commit suicide using gases,” he said. “The most popular way is nitrogen and/or helium. And again, it’s painless. It’s peaceful.”

Nebraska has carried out only one execution in the last 27 years, and those who oppose the bill say the death penalty is not needed in the state at all.

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Ari Kohen, a member of L’chaim! Jews Against the Death Penalty, said there are no “good ways” to kill people.

He believes that solutions to crime should be more proactive than reactive.

“From my faith perspective, taking the life of a person is wrong,” he said. “It’s a moral wrong. We didn’t need it. We are safe, we are protected as a community from violent offenders. They go to jail, and they stay in jail. And that’s the goal.”

Kohen called the bill a “special kind of mistake” and said this proposed execution method is especially egregious because of the Holocaust.

“Having the state administering a gas to take the life, to suffocate people, it’s a very unsettling reminder of a terrible, terrible, dark time in the history of humanity,” he said.

Members of the Judiciary Committee must vote on the bill before it can move to debate.