“Minutes of agony”: First nitrogen execution in the USA
Published: Friday, Jan 26th 2024, 16:40
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For the first time in the USA, a man sentenced to death has been executed using a new nitrogen method.
58-year-old Kenneth Eugene Smith was executed on Thursday evening (local time) in a prison in the US state of Alabama using nitrogen hypoxia, according to Alabama's Attorney General Steve Marshall. This method was not only used in the USA, but for the first time worldwide, Marshall explained.
Human rights experts had raised serious concerns in advance. However, all attempts by the man's lawyers to stop the execution were unsuccessful.
The execution took place in a prison in the small town of Atmore in southern Alabama. During the procedure, the prisoner is injected with nitrogen via a face mask - the result is death from lack of oxygen. According to Marshall, it took less than 30 minutes. A representative of the responsible prison authority said that Smith twitched and breathed abnormally at times. But this was expected. Smith had been convicted of murder.
Pastor describes minutes-long ordeal
The priest present at the execution, Jeff Hood, described how prison officers in the room were visibly surprised at "how badly things were going". Smith was not unconscious within seconds. "What we saw was minutes of someone fighting for their life," Hood said. Smith was writhing, spitting and repeatedly jerking his head forward - the mask was attached to the execution table.
United Nations experts do not consider it scientifically proven that the inhalation of pure nitrogen does not cause serious suffering. After Smith's execution, the UN Human Rights Office warned against the spread of this method. "We are ringing the alarm bells because this may constitute a form of torture that violates human rights," said UN human rights spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani in Geneva. There are fears that this will now be accepted as a method of execution.
1000 US dollars for a contract killing
In 1988, at the age of 22, Smith became involved in a contract killing. The victim was the client's wife, who took her own life a week after the crime. Smith and two accomplices were caught - one received a life sentence and died in prison in 2020, the other was executed by lethal injection in 2010.
Although Smith admitted in the trial against him that he had been present at the crime, he claimed not to have taken part in the fatal attack himself. After an appeal trial, the jury actually gave him a life sentence in 1996, but the judge in charge overruled this at the time. Alabama only abolished the law that allowed this in 2017 - the last US state to do so.
A failed execution attempt
Like his accomplice, Smith was also supposed to be executed by lethal injection. However, prison staff failed to insert the necessary needle into his arm in 2022. After several hours in which he lay strapped to the execution table, he was taken back to his cell.
In the USA, executions by lethal injection repeatedly fail or drag on for hours. Because the US Association of Physicians and Nurses (AMA) prohibits its members from participating in executions, they are sometimes not carried out by sufficiently trained specialists. In addition, many pharmaceutical companies block the use of their drugs or the equipment required for injections. A legal dispute has been raging for years over the extent to which the US Food and Drug Administration should be involved.
However, US states in which death sentences are still carried out can circumvent shortages and licensing issues by obtaining the poison cocktails from compounding pharmacies. These are not regulated at federal level - and have made headlines in the past due to a lack of hygiene, for example.
Relatives: Debts have been settled
Relatives of the woman who was killed in the contract killing in 1988 had reacted with incomprehension to the debate about Smith's possible suffering. After the execution, one of her sons said: "Nothing that happened here today will bring mom back, nothing." His family had forgiven all three perpetrators. But he also emphasized: "The Bible says that evil deeds have consequences. Kenny Smith made some bad decisions 35 years ago. His debt was paid tonight."
Only a few media representatives were allowed to observe the execution, including a reporter from the regional television station WHNT. According to her, Smith said shortly before his death: "Tonight, Alabama has made humanity take a step back." He continued: "I go with love, peace and light."
In the company of China, Iran and Saudi Arabia
The death penalty still exists in the USA today in the military, at federal level and in 27 states, although it is no longer carried out de facto everywhere. The authorized methods vary from state to state. By far the most common method is execution by lethal injection. Nitrogen hypoxia is only permitted in the states of Oklahoma and Mississippi, apart from Alabama. The method has never been used there.
The human rights organization Amnesty International recorded at least 883 executions in 20 countries in 2022. According to the report, the death penalty was carried out most frequently in China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the USA - in that order. In 2023, 24 death sentences were carried out in the USA; Smith's execution on Thursday was the first this year.
©Keystone/SDA
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