1 of 1 Kenneth Smith, man sentenced to death in the state of Alabama, USA Photo: Portal Kenneth Smith, man sentenced to death in the state of Alabama, USA Photo: Portal
Kenneth Smith, a 58yearold man sentenced to death in the US state of Alabama, could be asphyxiated by nitrogen gas, a method never used in the country.
According to a text from the CBS network, this is a method that has not been tested. The condemned man wears a mask connected to a cylinder that only emits nitrogen gas. Without oxygen, people suffocate.
According to CBS, doctors and even veterinarians are against this type of execution: The American Veterinary Association has recommended against using nitrogen gas to kill mammals because it can be a stressful method. The only sector where nitrogen gas is used on animals is chickens.
Kenneth Smith was convicted of a contract killing he committed in 1988.
US states have had difficulty obtaining the chemicals used in lethal injections (the most common protocol for executions). European countries have banned the pharmaceutical industry from selling these products for use in executions.
Therefore, some states are returning to some old methods of killing people. In some places rifle battalions were deployed. The states of Alabama, Mississippi and Oklahoma have resumed gas executions.
The convicted man sued the Alabama Department of Corrections over the risks associated with the use of nitrogen gas. If the method fails, a stroke or paralysis may occur.
United Nationsaffiliated experts said this was the first time in the world that an inert gas had been used for asphyxiation and that it violated treaties against torture and cruel and inhumane treatment.
There is no guarantee of a painless death, the judge said
Judge R. Austin Huffaker of Alabama said the execution is expected to take place the week of Jan. 21.
He stated in his text that Smith, the defendant, was not guaranteed a painfree death, but that the case had not shown the opposite, namely that the method certainly or probably carried great risk or caused great pain.
Execution survivor
There has already been an attempt to execute Smith: in November 2022, he was executed by lethal injection, but they failed to insert a syringe into her vein to introduce the poison. There are only two people living in the United States who have survived an attempted execution in the United States, and he is one of them.