Death row inmate set for first execution by nitrogen gas
THE US was last night set to execute a man with nitrogen gas, an untested method vets deem “too distressing” for use on many animals, after executioners failed to kill him by lethal injection.
Kenneth Eugene Smith, 58, has been on death row for more than three decades after being convicted in 1989 of a murder-for-hire. He was to be executed by nitrogen hypoxia, a first in the United States, and a method that the United Nations has likened to “torture”.
Smith was to be put to death at Holman prison in Atmore, Alabama, during a 30-hour window beginning at 12am local time (6am GMT) yesterday.
The controversial method was proposed after Smith was subjected to a botched execution attempt in 2022 by lethal injection. Prison officials were unable to set intravenous lines to administer the injection. The last US execution using gas was in 1999 when a convicted murderer was put to death using hydrogen cyanide gas. Alabama is one of three US states that have approved the use of nitrogen hypoxia as a method of execution. It involves administering nitrogen gas through a mask, depriving the body of oxygen.
Last week, Ravina Shamdasani, a spokesman for the UN rights office in Geneva, urged Alabama to abandon plans to use the “novel and untested” method. She said it could “amount to torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, under international human rights law”.
While nitrogen gas has never been used to execute humans in the US, it has been used to kill animals. But the American Veterinary Medical Association has advised against using it to euthanise most mammals, calling it “distressing”.
Experts have repeatedly warned nitrogen toxicity may cause a person to suffer unnecessarily, while also threatening the health of others in the room.
Smith had appealed to the US Supreme Court for a stay of execution, but the nation’s highest court rejected the request on Wednesday. A separate appeal has been lodged in federal court.