Los Angeles Times

Use of nitrogen gas for executions may be OK’d

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After a gruesome botched execution last year and fearful that a Supreme Court decision could ban the usual execution drug, Oklahoma is poised to become the first state to execute inmates with nitrogen gas.

A bill passed by the Legislatur­e without dissent and sent to the governor would make nitrogen the second available means to carry out an execution, after lethal injection.

“If the execution of the sentence of death … is held unconstitu­tional by an appellate court of competent jurisdicti­on or is otherwise unavailabl­e,” the bill reads, “then the sentence of death shall be carried out by nitrogen hypoxia.”

The new rules would go into effect Nov. 1. If lethal injection isn’t available now, Oklahoma law compels the state to use an electric chair. The third option is a firing squad.

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