By Alabama inmate Kenneth Smith was executed with nitrogen gas, marking the emergence of a wholly new method of capital punishment
This makes a first-of-its-kind method that once again puts the US at the forefront of the debate over capital punishment. The state said the method would be humane, but critics called it cruel and experimental.
Alabama on Thursday night executed Kenneth Smith, the first death row inmate known to die by nitrogen gas, marking the emergence of a wholly new method of execution in the United States that experts have said could lead to excessive pain or even torture.
Smith, who was sentenced to death for his role in a 1988 murder for hire, had survived the state’s initial attempt to execute him by lethal injection in 2022. Earlier Thursday, the US Supreme Court denied his last-minute appeal to halt the execution, after declining the same request on Wednesday.
Smith’s time of death was 8:25 p.m. local time, officials announced. In a news conference after the execution, Alabama Department of Corrections Commissioner John Hamm said nitrogen was running for about 15 minutes.
In a joint report, witnesses from the media said Smith made a lengthy statement before he died, saying, “Tonight Alabama caused humanity to take a step backward,” and adding, “I’m leaving with love, peace and light, thank you for supporting me, love all of you.”
Smith appeared conscious for “several minutes into the execution,” and for two minutes after that, he “shook and writhed on a gurney,” according to the media witness report. That was followed by several minutes of deep breathing before his breath began slowing “until it was no longer perceptible for media witnesses.”
When asked at the news conference about Smith shaking during the start of the execution, Hamm said Smith appeared to be holding his breath “for as long as he could” and may have also “struggled against his restraints.”
Another witness, Smith’s spiritual adviser who’d previously expressed concern that the method could be inhumane, described the death in more graphic terms, saying it was “the most horrible thing I’ve ever seen.”
In a statement, Smith’s legal team said they were “deeply saddened” by his death, adding he had found and “sincerely practiced his faith,” had become sober and helped other inmates achieve sobriety, and had earned an associate’s degree.
Little is known about how the method of execution, known as nitrogen hypoxia, was carried out because the state’s published protocol bears redactions experts say shield key details from public scrutiny. The state, in court records, indicated the redactions were made to maintain security and it believes death by nitrogen gas to be perhaps the most humane method of execution ever devised.
Alabama on Thursday used nitrogen hypoxia, a method it adopted in 2018. It is one of just three states, along with Oklahoma and Mississippi, that has approved the use of nitrogen for executions, though no other state has used it and only Alabama has a protocol. In theory, the method involves replacing the air breathed by an inmate with 100% nitrogen, depriving the body of oxygen. Its proponents contend the process will be painless, citing nitrogen’s role in deadly industrial accidents or suicides.
