MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Alabama is preparing to use a new execution method: nitrogen gas.
Kenneth Eugene Smith, who survived a previous state attempt to execute him by lethal injection in 2022, is scheduled to be executed Thursday by nitrogen hypoxia. If carried out, it would be the first new method of execution since lethal injection was introduced in 1982.
The state maintains that nitrogen gas will cause unconsciousness quickly but critics have likened the never-used execution method to human experimentation.
What is nitrogen hypoxia?
The implementation of nitrogen hypoxia will cause death by forcing the prisoner to inhale pure nitrogen, depriving him of the oxygen necessary to maintain bodily functions.
Has it ever been used?
Alabama is one of three states to approve the use of nitrogen gas but is the first to do so. Getty Images/iStockphoto
No state has used nitrogen hypoxia to carry out capital punishment. In 2018, Alabama became the third state — along with Oklahoma and Mississippi — to allow the use of nitrogen gas to execute inmates.
Some states are looking for new ways to execute inmates because the drugs used in lethal injection, the most common method of execution in the United States, are becoming increasingly difficult to find.
How is it supposed to work?
Breathing 100% nitrogen is believed to cause fainting and eventually death from lack of oxygen. AP
Nitrogen, a colorless and odorless gas, makes up 78% of the air humans breathe and is harmless when inhaled with the right amount of oxygen.
The theory behind nitrogen hypoxia is that changing the composition of the air to 100% nitrogen will cause Smith to lose consciousness and then die from lack of oxygen.
Most of what is recorded in medical journals about deaths from nitrogen exposure come from industrial accidents – where nitrogen leaks or mixing have killed workers – and suicide attempts.
What does the government plan to do?
The state of Alabama is convinced that nitrogen gas will cause death within minutes. AP
After Smith was strapped to a gurney in the execution room, the state said in court filings that it would put a “NIOSH-approved Type-C full facepiece supplied air respirator” — a type of mask typically used in industrial settings to save lives — on oxygen — over Smith’s face.
The warden would then read the death warrant and ask Smith if he had any last words before activating the “nitrogen hypoxia system” from another room. Nitrogen gas will be administered for at least 15 minutes or “five minutes following a flat line indication on the EKG, whichever is longer,” according to state protocol.
The state has heavily redacted portions of the protocol related to gas system storage and testing.
The Alabama attorney general’s office told a federal judge that nitrogen gas would “cause unconsciousness in seconds, and cause death in minutes.”
What is criticism?
Smith’s lawyer said the government was trying to make him a “test subject” for a new method of execution.
They argued that the mask the state planned to use was not airtight and that oxygen seeping in could have given him a prolonged death sentence, possibly leaving him in a vegetative state rather than killing him. A doctor testified on Smith’s behalf that the low-oxygen environment could cause nausea, causing Smith to choke to death on his own vomit.
Experts appointed by the United Nations Human Rights Council earlier this month warned that, in their view, the method of execution would violate the prohibition of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading punishment.
The American Veterinary Medical Association wrote in its 2020 euthanasia guidelines that nitrogen hypoxia may be an acceptable euthanasia method in certain circumstances for pigs but not for other mammals because it creates “an anoxic environment that is distressing for some species.”
Is this the same as a gas chamber?
Inaccurate. Some states previously used hydrogen cyanide gas, a deadly gas, for capital punishment. The last inmate to be executed in a US gas chamber was Walter LaGrand, the second of two German brothers sentenced to death for the 1982 murder of a bank manager in southern Arizona. LaGrand took 18 minutes to die in 1999.
Who is the prisoner?
An accident that complicated an intravenous line prevented Smith from being executed by lethal injection in 2022. AP
Smith was one of two men convicted of murdering a preacher’s wife in 1988. Prosecutors said Smith and another man were each paid $1,000 to kill Elizabeth Sennett on behalf of her husband, who was in debt and wanted to collect insurance money.
Alabama is trying to execute Smith in 2022 by lethal injection. He was strapped to a gurney in the execution chamber being prepared for lethal injection, but the government called off the lethal injection when members of the execution team had difficulty connecting the second of two necessary intravenous lines to Smith’s veins. Smith was strapped to a gurney for nearly four hours, according to his attorney, as he waited to see if the execution would go ahead.
Are there legal challenges?
Whether execution by nitrogen gas will continue or not will be decided by the Supreme Court. AP
The question of whether the execution can continue will end up before the US Supreme Court.
The 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments Friday in Smith’s request to block the execution. After the court’s decision, either party can appeal.
Smith has argued that the state’s proposed procedure violates the prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment. He also argued that Alabama violated his due process rights by scheduling the execution when he had an appeal pending and that the face mask would interfere with his ability to pray.
In a separate case, Smith argued it would violate the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment for the state to make a second attempt to execute him after he had already survived one execution attempt. Lawyers for Smith on Friday asked the US Supreme Court to delay the execution to consider the question.
What is potentially at stake?
Lethal injection is the most common execution method used in the United States, but capital punishment countries sometimes struggle to obtain the necessary drugs or face other problems in connecting intravenous lines.
If Alabama’s implementation continues, other states may begin using nitrogen gas.
If the implementation is blocked by the courts or fails, it could stop or slow down the pursuit of nitrogen gas as an alternative method of implementation.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
