Four UN experts have appealed to US officials on Wednesday to halt the scheduled execution of Alabama inmate, Kenneth Smith, by nitrogen hypoxia. Sentenced to life without parole in 1988 after a murder conviction, Smith is set to be executed on January 25, 2024.
The UN experts stressed that Smith’s execution would mark the first ever attempt at nitrogen hypoxia execution, expressing deep concerns about the potential effects of nitrogen gas asphyxiation. They warned this method “would result in a painful and humiliating death.”
They urged US and Alabama officials to reconsider the execution. If conducted, they contend, there would be likely infringements of the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, a treaty to which the US is a signatory. They also indicated that since nitrogen hypoxia has not been previously used, the US would infringe the Body of Principles for the Protection of All Persons Under Any Form of Detention or Imprisonment by opting for this execution method on Smith.
On the eve of Smith’s first scheduled execution, the US Supreme Court dismissed Smith’s petition for a stay. A subsequent amendment to Smith’s complaint stated that he spent four hours shackled on an execution table on November 17, 2022, while legal decisions about his execution were simultaneously being made, all unknown to him.
Alabama Governor Kay Ivey’s spokesperson, Gina Maiola, reported that nitrogen hypoxia was the execution method selected by Smith himself, as stated by the Death Penalty Information Center. In May 2023, the US Supreme Court dismissed an appeal from Alabama officials about Smith’s choice of execution by nitrogen hypoxia, thereby allowing a lower court finding that the alternative method should be permitted to stand.
Given the impending execution of Smith, observers have underscored the ethical dilemmas surrounding nitrogen hypoxia as an execution technique and have called upon the Jewish community to speak up against gassing as a method of execution.