Jeff Jacoby says that if Oklahoma’s “execution-by-nitrogen’’ plan works, other states will follow (“More humane than lethal injection,’’ Opinion, March 21). Further, he suggests, “opponents of capital punishment should welcome’’ this new way to take a life.

As president of Death Penalty Focus, I can assure Jacoby that we and our 150,000 supporters do not welcome this latest attempt to sanctify killing. Death penalty abolitionists don’t oppose hanging, the firing squad, the gas chamber, the electric chair, or lethal injection because they hurt. We oppose them because they kill. Using nitrogen gas in a cold, premeditated, ritualistic manner to forcibly end the life of a helpless human being cannot be disguised as a humane act, no matter what mask Jacoby or the State of Oklahoma chooses to put on it.

Oklahoma has the dubious distinction of performing one of the most brutally botched and gruesome executions in our sad history of state killing. This pathetic attempt to cleanse itself by misdirection is shameful.

The United States needs to join the rest of the Western world and recognize that executing its citizens is a barbaric act that brutalizes us all.

There are better ways for civilized societies to demonstrate humanity and dignify human life.

Mike Farrell

San Francisco