Nitrogen asphyxiation, the death penalty technique that the US will use for the first time

The death sentence USA plans to file suit against the inmate this Thursday Kenneth Eugene Smith will test an unprecedented method: the nitrogen gas. According to United Nations human rights experts, this is an unprecedented technique that can cause excessive pain and even torture.

Alabama It is, along with Oklahoma and Mississippi, one of three states in the country that allow their use in death sentences due to the increasing difficulty in obtaining lethal injection drugs due to pharmaceutical companies’ refusal to allow them to be used for be used for that purpose. .

Smith, 58, convicted in 1989 of the murder-for-hire of a woman, survived a lethal injection in 2022. The failed attempt contributed to an overhaul of the state’s death penalty procedures.

Nitrogen hypoxia is a procedure in which nitrogen, pure or in a concentration high enough to be fatal, is inhaled to the point of asphyxiation. The prisoner receives it through an airtight mask. The protocol for its application, established by the Alabama Department of Corrections last August, requires its technicians to verify that the volume of gas in the cylinder exceeds the minimum acceptance threshold.

That document specifies that when nitrogen is used in executions, the presence of a spiritual advisor in the so-called ‘death chamber’ will not be allowed unless the latter has signed a consent regarding possible risks.

The last piece before that moment, that Smith determined this Thursday at 6:00 PM local time (00:00 GMT on Friday), starting seven days earlier. For at least two days, execution team members must go through a process, including practicing transferring the prisoner from his cell to the death chamber.