Suffocation by Design: The Story of America's Newest Execution Method examines America's newest execution method, nitrogen hypoxia, combining legal analysis, historical documentation and Jeff Hood's firsthand testimony as a spiritual advisor to two condemned men who suffered greatly during their executions. The book meticulously examines judicial reasoning across federal courts, documenting how judges approached constitutional challenges to nitrogen hypoxia and how deference to state expertise enabled continued use despite observable suffering. Hood situates nitrogen hypoxia within the broader pattern of American execution methods, each introduced with promises of humanity only to reveal new violence. His central argument is damning: nitrogen hypoxia was sold as humane but delivers torture. The book stands as scholarly documentation and prophetic witness-a refusal to let the state sanitize violence or erase the humanity of those it kills.
