Supreme Court Gives Green Light to Run Untested Nitrogen in Alabama

Supreme Court rules Alabama can go ahead with plans to execute a death row inmate using nitrogen gas – a method execution by suffocation which has never been used in the United States.

The court denied the stay of execution on Wednesday for Kenneth Smith, who was sentenced to death in 1989 for the murder of Elizabeth Sennett, and had already undergone a failed attempt on execution by lethal injection in 2022. In May last year, the Supreme Court appeal denied by state officials to try once again to execute Smith by lethal injection.

Death by nitrogen hypoxia, which would occur through forced inhalation of high concentrations of nitrogen gas, is an untested method of execution. Attempts to use the method to euthanize mammals with the method have turned down by the American Veterinary Medical Association, according to findings that the gas can be “stressful to some species.”

Smith would be tied to a trough into the execution chamber and fitted with a mask that would feed the gas into his lungs. The increased concentration of nitrogen in Smith's blood would cause suffocation and organ death. Smith's attorneys argued that since the procedure has never been tested on humans, the state administers the risk of execution failureleaving Smith with potentially brain or serious physical injuries, as well as violating the constitutional protection against cruel and unusual punishment.

Concerns have also been raised that the possibility of a gas leak inside the chamber could put executioners, other prison staff and witnesses in danger given the toxic nature of nitrogen as well as its high flammability.

Earlier this month, the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights he called alabama halt the execution, citing “serious concerns” that their plan and lack of provisions for sedation and emergencies “could violate the prohibition of torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, as well as his right to an effective remedy inside”.

“The death penalty is inconsistent with the fundamental right to life,” the panel wrote. “There is an absence of evidence that it deters crime and creates an unacceptable risk of innocent people being executed. Instead of inventing new ways to implement the death penalty, we urge all states to implement a moratorium on its use as a step toward its universal abolition.”