On Jan. 25, Keneth Eugene Smith was put to death using nitrogen gas in Alabama. This was the first time nitrogen has ever been used to execute a human in a court-approved way. The death penalty is already a cruel and unusual punishment, but to have a state government experiment with a new, untested way of killing someone is abhorrent.
According to the Equal Justice Initiative, a non-profit based in Montgomery, Alabama, that provides legal representation to prisoners who may have been wrongly convicted of crimes, the only real-world knowledge about this execution method comes from lethal industrial accidents. One of these accidents happened in 1998 when two people doing a blacklight inspection under a temporary plastic enclosure at a chemical manufacturing company suffocated from lack of oxygen. The conditions the two died in cannot be accurately replicated in a judicial execution where a full-face mask is used to supply nitrogen gas as opposed to an entire enclosure being flooded with the gas. This is because, with a face mask, oxygen-rich air can leak in through the gaps, causing a slow horrible suffocation.
Smith, the first recipient of this new execution method, was strapped to a gurney and had a full-face mask buckled to his face that released nitrogen for 15 minutes. This adds to the unusualness of the punishment method because it has never been used before.
A media witness explained that during the first two minutes of gas flowing, Smith shook and pulled against the restraints while strapped to the gurney. This preceded several minutes of heavy breathing.
As exemplified in Smith’s execution, often when any human being or animal is killed by nitrogen gas, they show signs of distress, including convulsions and vocalization illustrating the cruelty of this method of death. This is according to an experiment done that tested nitrogen-based euthanization methods vs. intravenous drug euthanization methods of various animals, which is why the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) does not advise nitrogen as an euthanization method for most mammals.
Furthermore, Alabama’s protocol for the new method does not include any pre-sedation of the prisoner despite recommendations from the AVMA for pre-sedation for this kind of euthanasia. This adds to the cruelty of the method because of the prisoners’ complete consciousness as they slowly suffocate. Smith appeared to attempt to hold his breath during his execution, increasing the suffering. Smith’s spiritual advisor, Reverend Jeff Hood, who was at the execution, said that he looked like a flopping fish out of water.
This method has begun to spread to other states, such as Ohio. Ohioan Republican Attorney General Dave Yost has supported the execution method with legislative efforts. Yost and Republican State Representatives Brian Stewart and Phil Plummer introduced a bill that would allow soon-to-be executed inmates the choice between lethal injection or an execution by nitrogen gas. However, if the drugs for lethal injection are not available, the inmates will be forced to be executed with nitrogen.
Alabamian attorney general Steve Marshall said that the new method would be painless because the prisoner would become unconscious in seconds. He described Smith’s execution as textbook.
The only use of assisted suicide by nitrogen in Europe is from an Australian-born doctor named Philip Nitschke, who heads a company called Exit International, headquartered in the Netherlands, that actively promotes and endorses assisted suicide for those who wish to end their own life as long as they are of fit mental capacity. Nitschke and his company have designed a futuristic-looking death-pod, called the Sarco pod, which, after opening up a door reminiscent of the chambers of a trap door water slide, you lay down in it and are killed by nitrogen gas.
Nitschke claims that he has seen 50 people die by nitrogen inhalation and testified in court on Smith’s behalf that if a seal on the full face mask was not maintained due to Smith’s facial hair or movements, it would be a very grim sight as Smith would slowly die from an oxygen-poor environment.
This method poses newfound risks to those in the chamber where the gas is being administered through a full-face mask. Because of a Supreme Court ruling in 2022 where the supreme court ruled in favor of a man on death row who asked the Texas Department of Criminal Justice that his pasture be allowed to audibly pray for him and hold his hand in his final moment spiritual advisors are allowed to touch the prisoner during an execution. They may face dangers if the nitrogen were to leak into the surrounding air. Other observers in the chamber could also be affected.
All this is to say that the new nitrogen execution method is a cruel and unusual punishment that poses many health and safety risks. If we are to uphold the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution, no one should have cruel and unusual punishment inflicted upon them, which means that Smith should be the last person to ever endure this heinous experimental execution method.
