Lethal injection or gas? Inmates get to choose

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Some say inhaling nitrogen gas would be like dying on a plane that depressurizes in flight, swiftly killing all aboard. Now more than a quarter of Alabama’s death row inmates have signed statements saying they would prefer that gas over lethal injection or the electric chair when facing execution.

No prisoner in the U.S. has been put to death with nitrogen gas before, and critics suspect at least some inmates are simply hoping to delay a date with the death chamber through the inevitable legal challenges ahead.

State corrections officials say 51 of Alabama’s 180 inmates have chosen nitrogen hypoxia. They were allowed a choice after Alabama lawmakers voted this year to authorize that alternative execution method.

With difficulties obtaining execution drugs and litigation arising over claims of botched and horribly painful chemical injections this decade, Alabama joins Oklahoma and Mississippi in exploring a potential alternative.

John Palombi, a lawyer with the Federal Defenders Program, said his group advised inmates to request the uncertainties of nitrogen gas over what he called the known “torture” of Alabama’s three-drug cocktail. They had a June 30 deadline to make a choice.

Palombi cited the executions of Torrey McNabb last year and Ronald Smith Jr. the year before.

While being sedated in the death chamber for the 1994 killing of a convenience store clerk, Smith coughed and heaved repeatedly for 13 minutes. His attorneys said his movements showed he was “not anesthetized at any point during the agonizingly long procedure.”

Lawyers for McNabb said his final moments were inhumanely painful as he rolled his head back and forth while being executed for the 1997 slaying of a police officer.

State officials dispute that anything went wrong either time.

Republican Sen. Trip Pittman, sponsor of Alabama’s legislation, believes nitrogen will prove more humane.

“The person will pass out and ultimately pass,” said Pittman.