US state of Alabama: Execution by nitrogen for the first time

A murderer is scheduled to be executed in Alabama today. But not by lethal injection, as is usual, but by inhaling nitrogen. This has never happened before – and it is controversial.

Kenneth Smith is one of the very few Americans to have survived an execution. Today he is to go to death row for the second time and he is very afraid. Smith told NPR radio in one of his rare interviews that he was still traumatized from the first time. Everyone tells him that he will suffer. He’s very scared.

The convicted murderer survived the first execution

Smith is a convicted murderer. At the end of the 1980s he was involved in the contract murder of a pastor’s wife.

In 2022, after more than 30 years in prison, the death sentence should be carried out. But prison staff were unable to provide access for lethal injection. After many attempts and several hours, the execution was stopped. He was completely alone, in a room full of people, none of whom tried to help him, Smith said.

Now, on the second attempt, he is supposed to die from nitrogen. The state of Alabama has not disclosed how exactly. Only this much is known: Smith is said to have a mask placed on his face through which he breathes in pure nitrogen. He would then die from lack of oxygen.

Untried procedure for executions

“As far as we know, this method has never been used anywhere in the world,” Robin Maher of the Death Penalty Information Center, DPIC, told News Nation. There is no way to test their effectiveness or to ensure that people do not suffer unnecessarily. Or even knowing if it’s working properly.

And the United Nations human rights office also has concerns that the execution could violate the ban on torture or other inhumane treatment. The U.S. Veterinary Association recommends that even large animals be given a sedative if they are euthanized.

Alabama, on the other hand, does not provide for anesthesia for the execution of people through nitrogen asphyxiation, said UN spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani in mid-January.

But advocates say death from nitrogen is not a painful death from suffocation. If the dying can breathe out toxic carbon dioxide while deprived of oxygen, most wouldn’t notice, says Michael Copeland, a law professor.

He co-authored a report on nitrogen executions for the state of Oklahoma. Oklahoma, along with Alabama and Mississippi, have approved the untested, controversial procedure.

Poison supply bottlenecks

In the USA, execution is usually carried out by lethal injection. But because pharmaceutical companies refuse to supply the necessary medicines, there are bottlenecks. In addition, it often happens that executions – like Kenneth Smith’s – go horribly wrong.

Smith had still hoped for the US Supreme Court. But the Supreme Court rejected the request for a delay.

The family of the murdered pastor’s wife, on the other hand, hopes that justice will now be served. His family will then be able to move on with their lives, said Michael Sennett, one of their sons, on NBC. But another family will lose someone. So it’s kind of bitter-sweet.