UN and EU condemn first US execution using nitrogen gas

The United Nations and European Union condemned the United States on Friday after the country's first execution of an inmate using nitrogen asphyxiation, an untested method that has reignited a debate about capital punishment.

The southern state of Alabama put convicted murderer Kenneth Smith to death on Thursday by pumping nitrogen hypoxia into a facemask, causing him to suffocate. It was the first use of the execution method, rather than the usual lethal injection.

Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall said "justice has been served" with Smith's execution but UN human rights chief Volker Turk, the EU and US civil liberties groups expressed horror and concern.

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

Ravina Shamdasani, spokeswoman for the UN human rights office in Geneva, said Smith was "clearly suffering" as he was put to death.

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."

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

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," local news outlet AL.com reported.

Smith appeared to be "holding his breath as long as he could" and there was "involuntary movement" and gasping, Alabama Department of Corrections Commissioner John Hamm told reporters.

Smith was pronounced dead at 8:25pm.

Ti Gong

'Step backward'

Smith was subjected to a botched execution attempt in November 2022, when prison officials were unable to set intravenous lines to administer a lethal injection.

The US Supreme Court rejected his last-minute appeals for a stay of execution.

Smith's last words Thursday were, "Tonight, Alabama caused humanity to take a step backward," according to the local CBS affiliate.

"I am leaving with love, peace and light... I love you. Thank you for supporting me. I love all of you."

The last US execution using gas was in 1999 when a convicted murderer was put to death using hydrogen cyanide gas.

There were 24 executions in the United States in 2023, all of them carried out by lethal injection.

Alabama is one of three US states that have approved the use of nitrogen hypoxia as an execution method, along with Oklahoma and Mississippi.

While nitrogen gas had never previously been used to execute humans in the United States, it is sometimes used to kill animals.

But Turk's office pointed out before the execution that even the American Veterinary Medical Association recommends giving large animals a sedative when they are euthanized in this manner.

Alabama's protocol for execution by nitrogen asphyxiation makes no provision for sedation.

The state defended the technique as "perhaps the most humane method of execution ever devised."

Smith and an accomplice, John Parker, were convicted of the 1988 murder of Sennett, for which they were each paid US$1,000. Parker was executed by lethal injection in 2010.

Speaking to reporters after the execution, Elizabeth Sennett's son Mike said it had been a "bittersweet" day for his family, as "nothing that happened here today is going to bring Mom back."