CaractacusPotts

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/13995226

"Our country has historically responded to drug use with punishment, imprisonment, fines, court orders and criminal records," Lapointe said. "This response has resulted in lost jobs, lost families, lost dignity and lost hope. It has required huge investments in the criminal justice system, police, courts, probation officers and prisons."

However, medical and legal experts told ABC News that nitrogen gas as a method for execution is untested and there's no evidence the method will be any more humane or painless than lethal injection.

"I've never heard anyone say, 'We've got this new method of execution. We've looked at it carefully. We know that this method of execution will cause a death that will not be cruel. Here's the evidence,'" Dr. Joel Zivot, an associate professor in the department of anesthesiology at Emory University School of Medicine, told ABC News. "That's what needed to be said. No one has said that."

SCOTUS Green Lights Novel Execution Method Human rights organizations previously denounced the use of nitrogen gas

The court heard audio recordings taken after the RCMP's raid on Coyote Camp and Gidimt’en Checkpoint on November 18-19, 2021. The recordings caught officers referencing "gassing” people in the tiny home, referring to a man as an "ogre" and laughing about how multiple officers "beat the shit out of him", and referring to Indigenous women as "orcs" for wearing red paint symbolizing Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. Another audio recording revealed an officer saying “Here’s Johnny,” comparing the scene from The Shining to the officers’ use of axes to break into the cabins. RCMP Superintendent Elliott agreed that the recordings were not in accordance with his mission to comply with the Charter and called the officers’ behaviour “unprofessional and unacceptable.”