The UN and European Union
condemned the United States on Friday
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 Friday).
“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.
– ‘Step backward’ –
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
told AFP.
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.
The US Supreme Court rejected his
latest appeal for a stay of execution.
Smith’s last words Thursday were,
“Tonight, Alabama caused humanity to
take a step backward,” according to the
local CBS affiliate.
“I am leaving with love, peace and
light… I love you. Thank you for
supporting me. I love all of you.”
According to the Alabama Department
of Corrections, Smith had a last meal of
steak, hash browns and eggs.
The last US execution using gas was in
1999 when a convicted murderer was
put to death using hydrogen cyanide
gas.
There were 24 executions in the United
States in 2023, all of them carried out
by lethal injection.
Alabama is one of three US states that
have approved the use of nitrogen
hypoxia as an execution method, along
with Oklahoma and Mississippi.
– Calls for moratorium –
While nitrogen gas had never
previously been used to execute
humans in the United States, it is
sometimes used to kill animals.
But Turk’s office pointed out before the
execution that even the American
Veterinary Medical Association
recommends giving large animals a
sedative when they are euthanized in
this manner.
Alabama’s protocol for execution by
nitrogen asphyxiation makes no
provision for sedation.
The state defended the technique as
“perhaps the most humane method of
execution ever devised.”
Smith and an accomplice, John Parker,
were convicted of the 1988 murder of
Sennett, for which they were each paid
$1,000. Parker was executed by lethal
injection in 2010.
Charles Sennett, who had arranged his
wife’s murder, killed himself a week
after her death.
Speaking to reporters after the
execution, Elizabeth Sennett’s son Mike
said it had been a “bittersweet” day for
his family, as “nothing that happened
here today is going to bring Mom
back.”
According to a recent Gallup Poll, 53
percent of Americans support the death
penalty for someone convicted of
murder, the lowest level since 1972.
Capital punishment has been abolished
in 23 states, while the governors of six
others — Arizona, California, Ohio,
Oregon, Pennsylvania and Tennessee —
have put a hold on its use.
“The death penalty is inconsistent with
the fundamental right to life,” said UN
rights chief Turk.
“I urge all states to put in place a
moratorium on its use, as a step
towards universal abolition.”


https://guardian.ng/news/un-and-eu-condemn-first-us-execution-using-nitrogen-gas/

mynd44 oam4j lalasticlala seun nlfpmod

https://www.voanews.com/a/human-rights-groups-condemn-execution-of-us-man-with-nitrogen-gas/7458002.html

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-68085513

America bragging about
testing a new method of execution but will blame others for other method of execution. Hypocricy at it's peak

Just bring back the firing squad
And execute within 14 days of being found guilty

Hmm

Missgreg0:
Hmm

America tend to have barbaric laws.

I think it would be more humane and cost effective
to just shoot Him in the head

That will be good for kidnappers, election riggers and Boko bandits.

insidelife22:
That will be good for kidnappers, election riggers and Boko bandits.

Tie a rock around and into the ocean!!!

Leave it to the party of Nazis