Last week, the US State of Alabama made history by becoming the first state to use nitrogen gas to execute a death row prisoner. 

Kenneth Eugene Smith became the first person to be executed via nitrogen gas hypoxia on 25 January 2024. Smith was convicted of the 18 March 1988 murder-for-hire of Elizabeth Sennett in Colbert County, Alabama.

Nitrogen gas hypoxia execution causes death by forcing the inmate to breathe pure nitrogen, depriving them of the oxygen they need to live.

Smith was initially meant to be executed in 2022 via lethal injection, but the team handling his execution could not locate his veins to administer the injection before his death warrant expired. 

According to those in attendance, Smith was conscious for several minutes before he convulsed and attempted to remove his restraints. “What we saw was minutes of someone struggling for their life,” Reverend Jeff Hood told The Guardian. He had served as Smith’s spiritual adviser. 

Smith lost a last-minute appeal in the US Supreme Court to stay his execution. Smith had argued that the then-untested use of nitrogen gas violated his Eighth Amendment rights. The amendment prohibits cruel and unusual punishments. The Court rejected his appeal in a 6-3 decision.

Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote in her dissent that Alabama had chosen to use Smith as a ‘guinea pig’. “ Having failed to kill Smith on its first attempt, Alabama has selected him to test a method of execution never attempted before,” she wrote in her dissent. “The world is watching.”

The European Union has, in a statement,  also expressed deep regrets and has called for the abolition of the death penalty. “We are concerned that the number of executions in the US increased last year. We call for states that maintain the death penalty to implement a moratorium and move towards abolition, in line with the worldwide trend,” read the statement. 

The United Nations also denounced the execution with The High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, saying he had “serious concerns this novel and untested method of suffocation by nitrogen gas may amount to torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment”.

Amnesty International said that accounts of the execution were proof that “there is no humane way to take someone’s life”. The organisation, through USA researcher Justin Mazzola, has called for those in power to “stop trying to fix the failed experiment that is the death penalty.” Amnesty International is known for its call for the abolition of the death penalty across the world. According to the organisation, as of 2022, 55 countries still have the death penalty. The death penalty in South Africa was abolished in 1995 after the landmark ruling in S v Makwanyane that the death penalty was unconstitutional and infringed on the right to life. 

While many have called for the reinstatement of the death penalty in South Africa, research has shown that the sentence was not a deterrent to committing crime. According to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the death penalty had little or no effect on the public. “Death penalty laws falsely convince the public that the government has taken effective measures to combat crime and homicide. In reality, such laws do nothing to protect us or our communities from the acts of dangerous criminals,” they said. 

Attribution: Alabama Department of Corrections

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