GREENSBORO, N.C. (AP) — To the growing death penalty debate, a mayor submitted this suggestion: put inmates on ice — literally.

During a city council meeting, Mayor Keith Holliday said Tuesday that the worry over executing innocent people could be resolved by cryogenically freezing death row inmates, then reversing the process if later evidence clears them of crimes.

Several council members laughed.

But Holliday said he wasn't joking. He said the technology had been the subject of a television talk show he had watched.

"I'm just trying to think outside the box," he said.

James Southard, former president of the Society for Cryobiology, said technology to freeze and revive human beings is not on the horizon.

"There's no legitimate basis for it," said Southard, whose research seeks to improve short-term preservation of organs for transplant.

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