Alabama executed a convicted murderer using nitrogen gas on Thursday, a first-of-its-kind method that reignited the U.S. capital punishment debate.
While the state claimed the method’s humanity, critics labeled it as both cruel and experimental.
Kenneth Eugene Smith, 58, was declared dead at 8:25 p.m. in an Alabama prison, breathing pure nitrogen gas through a face mask to induce oxygen deprivation.
This marked the first utilization of a new execution method in the U.S. since the introduction of lethal injection in 1982, now the most prevalent method.
The state had previously tried to execute Smith, convicted of a 1988 murder-for-hire, in 2022, but the lethal injection was halted at the last minute due to issues connecting an IV line.
This execution followed a last-minute legal battle, with Smith’s attorneys arguing that the state was using him as a test subject for an experimental method that could violate the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
Despite federal courts rejecting Smith’s attempt to block it, the U.S. Supreme Court’s latest ruling on Thursday allowed the execution to proceed.
