Witness Reverend Jeff Hood told reporters he saw a man ‘struggling for their life’ for 22 minutes as Smith became the first US death row inmate executed by nitrogen asphyxia
“Kenny just began to gasp for air repeatedly and the execution took about 25 minutes total.”
Let's say you hypothetically agree that the state should reserve the power to execute some people, in very very rare cases. Well cruel and unusual punishment is supposed to be unconstitutional. And all the chemical companies refuse to sell the injection chemical. And testing out new methods is obviously pretty cruel...
Focusing on the unpleasantness could actually get us closer to a place where effectively no capital punishment occurs due to these limiting factors. Without even getting the average American on board with the idea that executions should be banned entirely.
There are people who are in favor of capital punishment. Not all may be in favor of slow, drawn out executions. Focusing on the execution being performed poorly convinces them.
Obviously people are free to disagree, but toe that makes no sense that you think someone's life and autonomy doesn't matter but a little suffering is bad