Alabama Set to Carry Out First Nitrogen Gas Execution. Here’s Why That’s Controversial
Alabama will attempt to put an inmate to death with nitrogen gas on Thursday night, a never before used execution method that the state claims will be humane but critics call cruel and experimental.
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00:00 The state of Alabama on Thursday, January 25th, intends to execute death row inmate Kenneth Eugene Smith with nitrogen gas.
00:09 This will be the first time this execution method has been used in the nation, if not the world.
00:15 This is how Alabama says it will work.
00:18 The state intends to strap Smith to a gurney in the execution chamber at home and prison and place an industrial-grade respirator face mask over his face from approximately his forehead to chin.
00:31 The warden will then activate what the state is calling a nitrogen hypoxia system that will replace breathing air supplied through the mask with pure nitrogen gas, causing Smith to die from lack of oxygen.
00:46 The Alabama Attorney General's Office told a panel of federal judges that this will be the most painless and humane execution method developed by man.
00:55 But critics have their doubts and point out the state can't know exactly what will happen because this execution method has never been tried previously.
01:03 Smith's attorneys say that he is at risk for seizures, strokes, potentially choking to death on his own vomit, and a prolonged execution that could leave him in a vegetative state instead of killing him.
01:15 His attorneys have asked the appellate courts and the U.S. Supreme Court to block the execution.
01:22 One of his arguments is that it would be unconstitutional to execute him for a second time since the state tried to execute Smith by lethal injection in 2022, but called off the procedure because of difficulty connecting intravenous lines.
01:38 There are several protests scheduled outside the Alabama Capitol, but the state says it intends to proceed on Thursday night.