nitrogen hypoxia

Witnesses, including five news reporters, watched through a window, Kenneth Eugene Smith, who was convicted and sentenced to die in the 1988 murder-for hire slaying of Elizabeth Sennett, convulsed on a gurney as Alabama carried out the nation's first execution using nitrogen gas.

Alabama's first-ever use of nitrogen gas for an execution could gain traction among other states and change how the death penalty is carried out in the United States, much like lethal injection did more than 40 years ago, according to experts on capital punishment. APR News raised this issue in its national coverage on NPR.

A man put to death using nitrogen gas shook and convulsed for minutes on the gurney as Alabama carried out the first-of-its-kind execution that has ignited debate over the humaneness of the method.

The European Union and the U.N. Human Rights Office are expressing regret over the death of convicted killer Kenneth Smith. The EU called the first ever use of nitrogen gas "particularly cruel." The U.N. says the death penalty does not deter crime. APR news may be asked to explain to news listeners in eastern Europe how Alabama administers capitol punishment. The investigative news website "Dnevnik" in Bulgaria’s capitol city of Sofia contacted APR and asked for our input.

An Alabama inmate remains scheduled to be the first person in the United States to be put to death with nitrogen gas. The U.S. Supreme Court is rejecting a request for a stay of execution for Kenneth Eugene Smith. Prior to this decision, his attorneys were hoping for a last-minute reprieve from federal courts in his bid to halt the death sentence from being carried out.

Alabama is just over a day away from the first ever execution using nitrogen gas. Kenneth Eugene Smith is on death row for the murder for hire of a preacher’s wife in 1988. The State wants to use a face mask on the inmate to pump in nitrogen until he dies of suffocation. Alabama claims the process is painless. The non-profit, non-partisan, criminal justice journalism organization The Marshall Project calls it experimental.

Alabama, unless stopped by the courts, intends to strap inmate Kenneth Eugene Smith to a gurney and use a gas mask to replace breathable air with nitrogen, depriving him of oxygen needed to stay alive, on Thursday in the nation's first execution attempt with the method.

Alabama is preparing to use a new method of execution: nitrogen gas. Kenneth Eugene Smith, who survived the state's previous attempt to put him to death by lethal injection in 2022, is scheduled to be put to death Thursday by nitrogen hypoxia. If carried out, it would the first new method of execution since lethal injection was introduced in 1982.

An Alabama inmate set to be the first person put to death by nitrogen gas will ask a federal appeals Friday to block the upcoming execution. Kenneth Smith is scheduled to be executed by the never-used method Thursday at a south Alabama prison. The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will hear arguments Friday afternoon in Smith’s bid to stop the execution from going forward.

On Monday, January 22, a delegation of Alabama faith leaders and community members will gather at the state capitol building to urge Governor Kay Ivey to pause the first-ever nitrogen hypoxia execution. Kenneth Smith is set to be executed by this new and experimental method on January 25.