Lippencott Legislative Update
From District 34 State Senator Loren Lippencott
Carrying out the death penalty humanely
During my Air Force pilot training we once went into an altitude chamber to discover how our individual bodies reacted to a lack of oxygen to the brain, a condition known as hypoxia. While flying at high altitudes the loss of oxygen can happen quickly and insidiously, so it is imperative for pilots to know their personal symptoms of hypoxia so they can get their mask on immediately to provide essential oxygen.
An altitude chamber is cylindrical in shape in order to withstand pressures from within and without. (Think of a submarine with pressure from the outside or an aircraft fuselage with pressure from within.) During the training, while Air Force student pilots have their helmets and face masks on, air is pumped out of the chamber so as to simulate being at 40,000 feet above sea level, where air molecules are far apart and oxygen is sparse. The student, under the close supervision of an instructor, takes off the mask and discovers the symptoms of a lack of oxygen. This exercise is done multiple times during the ascent to 40,000 feet. My own symptoms were a feeling of warmth throughout my body and of sleepiness. Each person experiences different symptoms.
Once at 40,000 ft. of altitude in the chamber they then do a rapid decompression. At that point the pilot has only seven to 10 seconds of useful consciousness in which to put the mask on, otherwise they will pass out.
My point in telling this is to show that the sudden loss of consciousness due to oxygen starvation is painless and so insidious one doesn’t even realize it is happening. In 1999 the world was shocked when pro golfer Payne Stewart died when the Learjet he was flying on crashed in a field in North Dakota. When flight controllers lost contact with Stewart’s plane after it left Florida, fighter jets were scrambled and the pilots could see the windows of the plane were frosted over indicating a loss of cabin pressure. It’s quite possible Stewart and the other people in that aircraft passed out and never knew what was happening to them.
In this year’s legislature I have introduced a bill that would permit Nebraska authorities at our state prison to perform executions using nitrogen which results in death but is not unlike the process of passing out from hypoxia in an altitude chamber. The death penalty is the law of Nebraska, as determined by the will of the voters in 2016 and we are not debating that issue here. What this legislation proposes is a way to carry out the people’s will in the most humane, foolproof and painless manner possible. That is the way hypoxia works.
Recently I visited the State Penitentiary in Lincoln. The men I met there were humble fellow human beings and many of them not so much different from you and me. I recall a quote from Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, whom some say was the most brilliant man in recent history. He said, “There is no crime of which I do not deem myself capable.” Given the right circumstances any of us might be in prison or even on death row. With that in mind any fellow human’s last moments on earth should be surrounded in mercy and compassion. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
Thinking back on eighth grade science you might remember the air around us is made up of 78 percent nitrogen, 21 percent oxygen and one percent inert gases. So, we breathe nitrogen with every breath! But too much nitrogen and too little oxygen produces hypoxia and eventually death.
How such executions are carried out is quite simple. A mask, similar to what pilots wear in the military, is put over the nose and mouth of the individual and they simply continue to breathe nitrogen with no noticeable effects. In less than a minute the individual painlessly loses consciousness then passes away.
Any loss of life is tragic, no matter how it occurs, whether through an accident, a crime, and even if it is the result of a capital punishment. There is no pleasure in it but it is the law of our state and this method of execution is as kind as any!
The death penalty is an act carried out by the will of a government, and in our state and nation the people are the government. Carrying out the death penalty is one way the state wields the sword of justice. (See Romans 13) It is really no different in principle from the responsibility each military member takes on when he or she swears an oath to protect and defend the Constitution. As Rush Limbaugh used to say, “The purpose of the military is to kill people and break things.”
The F16 fighter squadron I served in at Ramstein, Germany was a strike squadron. That meant each pilot was trained to carry nuclear bombs on his aircraft. Those bombs were 100 times more powerful than the ones dropped in WWII. The pilots go into it with the understanding that dropping those bombs during a time of war is not the act of an individual pilot, but of one who is serving as an agent of the U.S. government. Douglas MacArthur said it best, “The soldier above all others prays for peace, for it is the soldier who must suffer and bear the deepest wounds and scars of war.”
While death is an inevitable fact of life, and while carrying out the death penalty is not something anyone relishes, nevertheless it is the law of the land and must be done to preserve peace and the rule of law. This legislation, I believe, gives our state officials a way to carry out that responsibility in a way that is compassionate and merciful to our fellow man.
