UN and EU condemn first US execution using nitrogen gas

AFP |  London                                                  

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

The UN and European Union condemned the United States yesterday after the country’s first execution of an inmate using nitrogen asphyxiation, an untested method that has reignited a debate about capital punishment.

The southern state of Alabama put convicted murderer Kenneth Smith to death on Thursday by pumping nitrogen hypoxia into a facemask, causing him to suffocate. It was the first time the country had used the execution method, rather than the more common lethal injection.

Smith was pronounced dead at 8:25 pm (0225 GMT yesterday). “Justice has been served. Tonight, Kenneth Smith was put to death for the heinous act he committed over 35 years ago,” Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall said in a statement. But United Nations human rights chief Volker Turk expressed deep concern about the execution.

“This novel and untested method of suffocation by nitrogen gas may amount to torture, or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment,” Turk said, according to a statement.

The European Union, which opposes the death penalty, also condemned the execution. “According to leading experts, this method is a particularly cruel and unusual punishment,” a spokesperson for the 27-member bloc said. Smith, 58, was on death row for more than three decades after being convicted of the 1988 murder-for-hire of Elizabeth Sennett, a pastor’s wife.

After the gas was administered at Alabama’s Holman Correctional Facility, Smith “began writhing and thrashing for approximately two to four minutes, followed by around five minutes of heavy breathing,” local news outlet AL.com reported.

Smith appeared to be “holding his breath as long as he could” and there was “involuntary movement” and gasping, Alabama Department of Corrections Commissioner John Hamm told reporters.

The curtain over the media witness room opened at 7:53 pm, AL.com said, with Smith pronounced dead 32 minutes later. Robin Maher, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, called it “an untested, unproven method of execution.”

“It’s never been used before to execute anyone in the United States, or anyone in the world as far as we know,” Maher said.

Smith was subjected to a botched execution attempt in November 2022, when prison officials were unable to set intravenous lines to administer a lethal injection.