In a first for the state, nitrogen asphyxiation was used to kill convicted murderer Kenneth Smith in Alabama.
Governor Kay Ivey announced the execution on Thursday night, highlighting the state’s decision to use this method instead than the more painful fatal injection.
Despite being praised by Alabama as “the most painless and humane method of execution known to man,” Smith’s legal team and UN human rights experts opposed the new protocol. Concerns concerning nitrogen asphyxiation’s experimental character, its dangers, and likelihood of a painful or non-fatal end gave rise to this dispute.
Smith had been the focus of court struggles to keep him from being executed since he had survived an earlier attempt at death by lethal injection.
Journalists who covered the incident and jail officials in Alabama are anticipated to give in-depth briefings later this Thursday night.
After being found guilty in 1988 of murder-for-hire, Kenneth Smith became well-known as one of the few prisoners to have survived an unsuccessful attempt at execution.
Officials in Alabama stopped his execution by lethal injection in November 2022 after they had been unable to set up an intravenous line for hours.
In his reflections following the execution, Governor Ivey said, “Kenneth Eugene Smith violently took the life of Elizabeth Sennett, 45, on March 18, 1988.” Mr. Smith has been held accountable for his terrible actions after more than 30 years and numerous attempts to manipulate the system.”
The historic incident calls into question the morality and legality of using nitrogen asphyxiation in the death penalty.
