Alabama official vows more nitrogen gas executions

An official of Alabama state touted its first execution of a convicted murderer by nitrogen gas poisoning as successful and humane, vowing more administration of the method for other death row inmates despite an uproar from the White House, the United Nations and the European Union.

The White House said Friday it was “deeply troubled” by the first-ever execution in the United States using the then untested method.

The state put Kenneth Smith, a 58-year-old convicted murderer, to death on Thursday by pumping nitrogen gas into a mask, causing him to suffocate.

Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall on Friday defended the decision to put Smith to death through nitrogen asphyxiation saying the execution had been carried out in a “professional manner” and went according to plan.

“We will definitely have more nitrogen hypoxia executions in Alabama, I believe that number is 43,” Marshall told reporters in a conference. None are currently scheduled for this year.

He thanked and praised the Alabama Department of Corrections for the execution.

“They deserve a great deal of thanks and credit for being willing to be the one to step up first in the country to do so and I now suspect that many states will follow,” he said, local news outlet AL.com reported.

“As of last night, nitrogen hypoxia as a means of execution is no longer an untested method. It is a proven one,” Marshall added, according to AL.com.

Recent executions in the US have been carried out by lethal injection but Alabama and two other states — Oklahoma and Mississippi — have authorized the use of nitrogen gas.

After the nitrogen gas was administered, Smith “began writhing and thrashing for approximately two to four minutes, followed by around five minutes of heavy breathing.”

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

‘Cruel, inhuman’

“The use of nitrogen gas — it is troubling to us,” White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters. “We are deeply troubled by it.”

She noted that President Joe Biden suspended federal executions after taking office.

“The president has long said, and has had deep, deep, deep, concerns with how the death penalty is implemented and whether it is consistent with our values,” Jean-Pierre said.

UN human rights chief Volker Turk, the EU and US civil liberties groups expressed concern about the manner of Smith’s execution, which has reignited debate about the use of capital punishment.

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

Ravina Shamdasani, spokesperson for the UN human rights office in Geneva, said Smith was “clearly suffering.”

Rather than using such untried methods to conduct executions, “let’s just bring an end to the death penalty,” Shamdasani said. “This is an anachronism that doesn’t belong in the 21st century.”

A spokesperson for the 27-member EU, which opposes the death penalty, denounced the method of execution as “a particularly cruel and unusual punishment.”

After the nitrogen gas was administered, Smith ‘began writhing and thrashing for approximately two to four minutes.’

Yasmin Cader of the American Civil Liberties Union said Smith “should have never been killed, let alone in such a gruesome manner.

“It’s past time for our country to put an end to the death penalty instead of inventing new and more heinous ways of carrying it out,” Cader said.

Smith was sentenced to death for the 1988 murder-for-hire of Elizabeth Sennett, a pastor’s wife.

He and an accomplice, John Parker, were each paid $1,000 to kill Sennett. Parker was executed by lethal injection in 2010.

WITH AFP