In a first, the United States executed a convicted murderer using nitrogen gas on Thursday in the state of Alabama.
According to the state of Alabama, it was “the most painless and humane method of execution known to man.”
The execution took place after a lengthy legal battle, after the convict, Kenneth Smith, appealed saying that the method was dangerous and could lead to non-fatal injury.
Smith, convicted of a 1988 murder-for-hire, was a rare prisoner who had already survived one execution attempt. In November 2022, Alabama officials aborted his execution by lethal injection after struggling for hours to insert an intravenous line needle in his body.
In Smith’s second and final trip to the execution chamber on Thursday, executioners restrained him in a gurney and strapped a commercial industrial-safety respirator mask to his face. A canister of pure nitrogen was attached to the mask that once flowing, deprived him of oxygen.
The execution began at 7:53 p.m. (0153 GMT Friday) and Smith was declared dead at 8:25 p.m. (0225 GMT), prison officials said.
Alabama officials had said in court filings they expected Smith would be rendered unconscious in under a minute and die shortly after.
