Kenneth Smith was sentenced to death in 1996 for a murder for hire that he committed. Image AP
Independent experts commissioned by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) their judgment passed about the method. According to the experts, there is a good chance of a ‘painful and humiliating’ death. That would contradict both international treaties and the US Constitution, which prohibits cruel punishment.
Alabama is the American state with the highest number of executions relative to its population. Since 1976, when the death penalty resumed in America, 72 people have been executed in Alabama. Normally, these executions are carried out by giving the death row inmate a lethal injection, but that is also a controversial method.
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Joram Bolle is a general reporter for de Volkskrant.
After three cases in a short period of time where executions went wrong, Alabama suspended the use of lethal injections last year. For example, in one of the executions it took more than three hours for the condemned to die. In two other cases, those in charge of the IV were unable to find a suitable vein for an hour. One of those cases involved Kenneth Smith, the man who was to be killed with pure nitrogen at the end of this month.
Smith is in prison for the murder of a pastor’s wife. The pastor paid Smith and two others $1,000 to commit the murder: he was in debt and wanted to collect the insurance premium. A jury sentenced Smith to life in prison, but the judge decided to impose the death penalty anyway.
Shortage of raw materials
Asphyxiation by inhaling pure nitrogen has been allowed as an execution method in Alabama since 2018, but has never been carried out. Oklahoma and Mississippi also officially have this option for execution. This arose in 2015 after many manufacturers worldwide refused to continue supplying the raw materials for the lethal injections, resulting in a shortage.
Human rights organizations and experts have major doubts about the nitrogen method. About 78 percent of Earth’s air is composed of nitrogen, but at higher doses the gas can be fatal. In theory, someone who inhales pure nitrogen will die within a few minutes from a lack of oxygen, but there is no scientific evidence that this can happen painlessly or without stress, say United Nations experts.
The American Veterinary Medical Association, an organization for veterinarians, even considers the method unsuitable for killing mammals because of the stress and hyperventilation that can occur. How the gas affects people can only be deduced indirectly from deaths that have occurred due to accidents, for example in industry.
Protocol unclear
Much also depends on how exactly Alabama wants to carry out the punishment, but the protocol that the state has drawn up is vague about this, experts say. The death row inmate must be given a mask with which to inhale the pure nitrogen for fifteen minutes, or five minutes after a heartbeat can no longer be detected.
However, if that mask does not close properly, oxygen mixes with the nitrogen and death can take much longer. In addition, if nitrogen leaks, there may be a danger to people in the room.
It is not certain whether the execution will actually go ahead. Smith has filed a case against Alabama. There were hearings in that case last December, but it is unclear when the judge will make a ruling.
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2024-01-03 20:31:19
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