The 58-year-old convicted murderer Kenneth Smith was executed on Thursday night by inhalation of nitrogen without sedation. This is the first time in the world that this method, which has been criticized, has been used. The day before, the U.S. Supreme Court and a lower appeals court refused to block what Kenneth Eugene Smith's lawyers called "cruel and unusual" punishment, UNN reports with reference to The Hill.
Details
On Thursday, Alabama became the first state in the United States (and the first in the world) to execute a death row inmate by nitrogen. Convicted of murder for hire in 1988, Kenneth Smith was executed by inhalation of nitrogen, a method that the United Nations had condemned in advance, comparing it to a form of "torture." Opponents argue that the use of nitrogen can cause unnecessary suffering, and that a leak could also harm people in the room.
Reference
Kenneth Eugene Smith, 58, was convicted in 1989 and finally sentenced to death in 1996 for the murder of a woman ordered by her husband.
Smith was one of two men convicted of the March 1988 murder of 45-year-old Elizabeth Sennett for $1,000. The woman was beaten with a fireplace mantel, stabbed in the chest and neck, and her death was staged as a home invasion and burglary.
Her husband, Charles Sennett, organized the plan to collect an insurance payout. He committed suicide when investigators approached. Smith's partner, John Forrest Parker, was executed in 2010. At the trial, Smith admitted that he was present when the victim was killed, but claimed that he was not involved in the murder.
In November 2022, Alabama officials canceled Kenneth Smith's execution by lethal injection after spending hours trying to insert an intravenous needle into his body.
All of Kenneth Eugene Smith's appeals and requests for a stay of execution have been rejected, including on Wednesday by the Supreme Court. The country's highest court, with a conservative majority, took up the convict's final appeal on Thursday, but did not take it up.
Justice has been served. Tonight, Kenneth Smith was executed for a despicable act he committed 35 years ago
The process was condemned by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, who said he was "concerned" about the use of "an unprecedented and untested method of execution, nitrogen hypoxia.
The Alabama protocol for nitrogen hypoxia does not provide for sedation, while the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) recommends sedation for animals euthanized in this way, the spokesman said.
This "may amount to torture or other cruel or degrading treatment under international law
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How nitrogen gas causes death
Nitrogen, a colorless, odorless, non-flammable, chemically stable, non-toxic gas, becomes asphyxiating when there is an excessive concentration in the air and, consequently, a lack of oxygen. It is 78.1% present in the air we breathe.
The execution protocol, described in a document filed with the court by state authorities and cited by AbcNews, states that after the inmate is strapped to a gurney, a "compressed air respirator, a type of mask commonly used in industrial settings to provide life-saving oxygen," is placed over his face. Smith will then be read the reasons for the verdict and asked if he has anything to say before a "nitrogen hypoxia system" is activated from another room. The nitrogen will be administered for at least 15 minutes or "five minutes after a flat trace appears on the ECG.
Nitrogen gas is known to be fatal under certain circumstances
But exactly how it works is still unclear. Most of the records in medical journals of deaths from nitrogen exposure are related to workplace accidents and suicide attempts.
According to anesthesiologist Joel Zivot, the risks associated with this method include "convulsions, suffocation from vomiting, and air getting into the mask, which can prolong the execution, not lead to death, but cause cerebral circulation disorders or put the person in a vegetative state.
Recall
UNN reported that death row inmate Kenneth Eugene Smith will become the first person in the United States to be executed by nitrogen gas after he lost a last-minute appeal.