In the US state of Alabama, a death row prisoner was executed with nitrogen for the first time. The United Nations speaks of possible torture – and warns against the spread of this method.
The United Nations Human Rights Office has warned against the spread of the method following the first execution of a prisoner using nitrogen in the United States. “We are sounding the alarm bells because this may constitute a form of torture in violation of human rights,” said UN human rights spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani in Geneva.
“We fear that this will now be accepted and used as a method of execution,” she said. Shamdasani noted that nitrogen hypoxia has already been approved in other US states.
“He clearly suffered”
Kenneth Eugene Smith, 58, who was convicted of murder, was suffocated using so-called nitrogen hypoxia in a prison in the US state of Alabama on Thursday evening (local time). During such an execution, the condemned person is given nitrogen via a face mask – the result is death from lack of oxygen.
It was the first time in the United States that a person sentenced to death was executed using this new method. Smith was reportedly shaking and convulsing before he was pronounced dead. “He was convulsing and clearly suffering,” Shamdasani said.
Instead of looking for new, untested methods to kill people, the death penalty should be abolished, she said. According to the UN spokeswoman, there is no evidence that executions have a deterrent effect, but there is plenty of evidence of wrongful convictions and the discriminatory use of the death penalty against minorities and poorer people.
“Particularly cruel method”
The United Nations Human Rights Commissioner, Volker Türk, also said the novel and untested method of nitrogen gas suffocation could potentially “contain torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.” His office therefore wants to ensure that other US states do not use the method.
The European Union made a similar statement. A spokesman for the European External Action Service said experts believe it was a “particularly cruel method.” “We call on states that maintain the death penalty to introduce a moratorium and move towards abolition in line with the global trend.”
Intervened unsuccessfully
Smith’s lawyers had tried until the very end to stop the execution. But neither the relevant courts in Alabama nor the US Supreme Court followed their requests. In recent days, demonstrators have also called on the governor of Alabama to intervene. But that didn’t happen either.
Smith was sentenced to death in 1996 for his involvement in a contract killing eight years earlier. Smith was actually scheduled to be executed by lethal injection in 2022. However, the prison staff were unable to insert the necessary cannula into his arm.
After several hours of lying strapped on the execution table, he was taken back to his cell. However, the courts did not consider the failed attempt in 2022 nor the concerns about the new method to be sufficient to stop the nitrogen execution.
First execution this year
When he was convicted in 1996, the jury had originally intended a life sentence for Smith. However, the judge responsible at the time ignored this recommendation and imposed the death penalty. Alabama became the last US state to abolish the law that made this possible in 2017. Smith’s execution is the first ever in the United States this year.