In the spring of 1998, two workers were performing a routine black-light inspection of a four-foot diameter pipe at the Union Carbide Taft/Star Manufacturing plant in Hahnville, LA when tragedy struck. Unbeknownst to the workers, the pipe was being purged with nitrogen in order to prevent oxidation, commonly known as rust. There was not a warning sign posted on or near the pipe opening, identifying it as a confined space that contained potential fatally hazardous nitrogen (“Confined…” 9). Nitrogen is an odorless, tasteless, invisible gas that is a major component of ordinary air. So when the workers entered the pipe they had no indication that anything was out of the ordinary. After covering one end of the pipe with black plastic for shade to make it easier to conduct the inspection in the daylight, the two workers were suddenly overcome by nitrogen. When coworkers found the two men, one was unconscious and the other was dead (“Confined…” 9).

All executions currently used today involve inflicting some sort of trauma to carry out the sentence. Moreover, each method can and has gone askew. On April 6, 1992 in an Arizona gas chamber, Donald Harding was not pronounced dead until 10 1/2 minutes after the cyanide tablets were dropped (Howe). During the execution, Harding thrashed and struggled violently against the restraining straps. A television journalist who witnessed the execution, Cameron Harper, said that Harding’s spasms and jerks lasted 6 minutes and 37 seconds (Howe). “Obviously, this man was suffering. This was a violent death…an ugly event. We put animals to death more humanely” (Howe). Another witness, newspaper reporter Carla McClain, said, “Harding’s death was extremely violent. He was in great pain. I heard him gasp and moan. I saw his body turn from red to purple” (Howe).

The death penalty is one of the most debated over issues in America today. Most debates boil down to the humanity of the procedure and how morally wrong it is to execute humans in such gruesome manners. The accounts of inflicting pain on the condemned can be traced back to the medieval times of drawing and quartering. Furthermore, the implementation of the guillotine carried the ancient rumor that the freshly severed head stays couscous for 15 seconds

Some topics in this essay:
Gas Association, Joseph Tafero, Nitrogen Asphyxiation, Hahnville LA, Nicholas Jenkins, Union Carbide, Hanging Gas, Corrections Professional”, Donald Harding, Harper Harding’s, death penalty, nitrogen asphyxiation, blood oxygen, blood oxygen level, carbon dioxide, oxygen level, urge breathe, gas chamber, percent oxygen, level falls low, method execution, union carbide, oxygen level falls, “confined…” 9 nitrogen, “compressed…” exposure atmosphere,