The US Supreme Court this Thursday gave the green light to the first execution of a person on death row using nitrogen, an experimental method never before used. The execution of 58-year-old Kenneth Eugene Smith was scheduled for this morning at an Alabama prison.
The new method, developed as an alternative to the difficulties of obtaining the drugs used in lethal injections, involves placing a mask over the face of the condemned man through which nitrogen is pumped, thus depriving the prisoner of oxygen, which initially causes him to lose consciousness. then death.
Smith’s lawyers tried to stop the execution, arguing that their client was being used as a guinea pig, but the Supreme Court rejected their arguments.
The state of Alabama claims the method is “painless and humane,” but the UN has warned it may constitute an unlawful practice of torture or “cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment.”
Smith, sentenced to death for a contract killing in 1988, already survived his first execution attempt in 2022 because guards were unable to find a vein to administer a lethal injection.