Alabama offered aid to other states this Friday USA what do they want to accomplish execution by nitrogen gas asphyxiationjust a few hours after implementing a new method of successful execution Kenneth Smithprisoner convicted of murder in 1988.
State Attorney General, Steve MarshallAlabama called the new method “humane” and human rights groups condemned it as cruel and torturous.
Marshall told reporters Friday.
Alabama did it, now you can too, and we’re ready to help you implement it in your states.
Lawmakers in Oklahoma and Mississippi have also added nitrogen asphyxiation to execution methods in their states, but have not yet used it.
Marshall said nitrogen asphyxiation, the first new method of execution since lethal injections began in the United States in 1982, “is no longer an untested method.” “It’s been proven,” he said.
Steve Marshall, Alabama Attorney General. | Photo: X @AGSteveMarshall
There were differing opinions about the brutal method among government officials and some of those who witnessed Smith’s public execution, who, unusually, survived the first execution attempt in 2022when executioners had difficulty inserting an intravenous line for lethal injection.
Alabama predicted in court papers that the new method would cause Smith to lose consciousness in about 30 seconds and die soon after. The criminals placed a commercial industrial safety respirator mask made by Canadian protective equipment manufacturer Allegro Industries over the man’s face and connected it to a cylinder of pure nitrogen.
Five journalists who were allowed to watch the execution through a window because witnesses said the man remained conscious for several minutes after the nitrogen flowed, and then began shaking and writhing on the stretcher for about two minutes.
Priest Jeff Hoodwho was with Smith as his spiritual director after signing a safety waiver acknowledging the risk of nitrogen asphyxiation, said the executed man repeatedly threw his head forward as he fought for his life.
Reverend Jeff Hood. | Photo: Reuters
Alabama officials said everything went as expected and that Smith appeared to be holding his breath as long as he could and suggested that turns they could be’involuntary movements‘.
The state Department of Forensic Sciences will conduct an autopsy on the body of Smith, who was convicted of killing Elizabeth Sennett after accepting $1,000 to kill her along with accomplices on the orders of her husband, a preacher who later committed suicide, prison officials said. .
The jury voted 11 to 1 to sentence him to life in prison, but an Alabama judge overturned their decision based on a law that was later repealed and declared unconstitutional. Some of Sennett’s relatives witnessed the execution and subsequently told the press that they had forgiven his killers and were glad it was over.
The American Civil Liberties Union, Amnesty International USA and other human rights groups condemned the execution.
“The purpose of these methods is to hide pain,” said Maya Foa, co-executive director of the advocacy group Reprive.
How many more prisoners must die in agony before we see executions for what they truly are: the state forcibly taking a human life?
Smith unsuccessfully challenged Alabama’s attempts to kill him in federal courts, arguing that the failed first attempt and the new, untested method violated the Constitution’s prohibition on “cruel and unusual punishment.”
Kenneth Smith, convicted of the 1988 murder of Elizabeth Sennett.
Robert Grass, the lawyer who represented Smith in those appeals, said he was saddened by his client’s death, describing him as a man who found sobriety in prison and was dedicated to helping other inmates find or stay sober.
‘He found and sincerely practiced his faith– said Grass and added.
He studied and received an associate’s degree. He developed his artistic abilities and under different circumstances would have become a very good lawyer.
(according to information from Reuters)