On January 25, the US state of Alabama will use nitrogen gas for the first time to execute a person.
The man who will be executed by nitrogen is Kenneth Smith. The first time Smith was scheduled to be executed, executioners at an Alabama prison had several hours to execute him. They covered Smith’s face with a veil and took him to the prison’s ‘death chamber’. The executioners tried to inject a solution of lethal chemicals into his body but failed.
They couldn’t find the convict’s vein (pulse) to inject, and according to Smith’s lawyers, efforts made by the prison authorities in this regard resulted in multiple injuries to Smith’s body. The executioners then abandoned their attempts to execute Smith because the clock had struck 12 midnight and the death warrant had expired due to the date change.
This time the government of Alabama has approved a new way to execute Smith. A mask will be tied over his mouth from which nitrogen gas will come out, which will suck all the oxygen in his body and thus he will die.
The United Nations High Commissioner expressed concern over this practice. He said that this method of punishment has never been tried and and this inhumane practice must be stopped.
Smith was arrested for the 1989 murder of a woman named Elizabeth Sennett. Elizabeth Sennett was stabbed to death. During the court proceedings, Smith admitted that he was present at the scene of the murder but did not participate in the attack.
Kenneth Smith is the first unlucky person in modern American history to be executed twice, the first time when the execution attempt failed and now the second time by nitrogen gas.
Alabama has the highest death penalty rate of any US state, with 165 inmates still on death row.
A researcher who submitted a study to the United Nations has described the use of nitrogen as an intolerable risk for punishment. However, the authorities in Alabama say that the effect of nitrogen gas will make the criminal unconscious immediately, but they have not provided any concrete evidence to support this claim.
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