Alabama Carries Out First US Execution Using Nitrogen Gas

Yesterday, the southern US state of Alabama executed a murderer who had been found guilty by utilizing nitrogen gas—the first time the contentious technique, which human rights organizations have denounced, has been applied in the nation.

The state attorney general stated that Kenneth Eugene Smith was declared deceased around 8.25 p.m. (10.25 a.m. Friday, Malaysian time).

“The right has been done. Kenneth Smith was executed tonight in retribution for the horrific deed he carried out more than 35 years ago, according to Attorney General Steve Marshall’s statement.

Smith, 58, was found guilty of killing a pastor’s wife in 1988 for money and spent more than thirty years on death row.

He was killed at Holman Prison in Atmore, Alabama, by suffocating himself with nitrogen gas by pumping the gas into a facemask.

He “began writhing and thrashing for approximately two to four minutes, followed by around five minutes of heavy breathing,” witnesses reportedly stated, according to local media Al.com.

According to the publication, the media witness room curtain opened at 7:53 p.m., and Smith was declared dead less than 40 minutes later.

The Death Penalty Information Center’s executive director, Robin Maher, has claimed that Alabama was “using an untested, unproven method of execution.”

“As far as we know, it has never been used to execute anyone in the United States or anywhere else in the world,” Maher informed AFP.

In November 2022, an attempt at Smith’s execution went horribly wrong when the jail administration could not establish an intravenous line for a deadly injection.

Smith said he was still dealing with “trauma” from the previous failed attempt and was “absolutely terrified” about his impending execution in a December interview with National Public Radio.

He remarked, “Everyone is telling me that I’m going to suffer.”

When a convicted murderer was executed in the United States in 1999, hydrogen cyanide gas was used to carry out the execution.

In 2023, there were twenty-four executions conducted by lethal injection in the United States.

in November 2022, when prison officials were unable to set intravenous lines to administer a lethal injection.

In an interview with National Public Radio in December, Smith said he was “absolutely terrified” about his upcoming execution and still suffering “trauma” from the previous failed attempt.

“Everybody is telling me that I’m going to suffer,” he said.

In 1999, a killer who had been found guilty was executed in the United States using hydrogen cyanide gas.

In the United States in 2023, there were twenty-four executions, all by lethal injection.