Alabama Set To Execeute Prisoner With Nitrogen Gas After Prisoner Survived Execution Attempt By Lethal Injection

Alabama is set to use nitrogen gas to execute a prisoner for the first time in its state’s history.

Alabama has explored different methods of executions, such as death by nitrogen gas, as the U.S. faces shortages in lethal injection of drugs.

Death by nitrogen ags consists of a person only inhaling nitrogen, which results in a person dying from a lack of oxygen.

Kenneth Eugene Smith is the inmate who is set to die and was sentenced to death for his role in a 1988 murder-for-hire of Elizabeth Dorlene Sennett.

In 2022, Smith survived an execution when prison staff were unable to find a suitable vein to inject lethal drugs.

Alabama is poised to use nitrogen gas in a planned execution next month, the first state to attempt such a method.

But some details of the protocol remain cloaked in mystery to the public. https://t.co/BXkINSHk1m

— NBC News (@NBCNews) December 28, 2023

Here’s what NBC News reported:

Alabama is poised to use nitrogen gas in a planned execution next month, the first state to attempt such a method, setting the stage for legal challenges as officials across the U.S. examine alternatives amid a shortage of lethal injection drugs.

ADVERTISEMENT

But while Alabama is intent on using nitrogen hypoxia, in which a person breathes only nitrogen and dies from a lack of oxygen, some details of the protocol remain cloaked in mystery to the public.

Even the inmate who is set to die, Kenneth Eugene Smith, told NBC News this month that he is not privy to an unredacted state protocol describing how the procedure will work. His legal and medical representatives were permitted this month to tour the execution chamber and inspect a mask for breathing the nitrogen, but without Smith.

“As goes Kenny, so goes the rest of my brothers,” Smith said of the 163 other death row inmates in the state during a phone interview from the William C. Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore.

Adding to the novelty of his case, Smith, 58, is a rare example of a person surviving a failed execution attempt: A previous plan to put him to death by lethal injection in November 2022 was called off when prison staff was unable to find a suitable vein. This, in addition to mounting scrutiny over the use of the lethal injection in other inmates, set off a pause in executions in Alabama.

Alabama plans to execute a man using nitrogen gas. How will it work? Few know https://t.co/K9JHLP13Ny

— Kamal Mustafa ✪ (@MeKamalMustafa) December 28, 2023

Per NPR:

The state of Alabama plans to execute a prisoner in January using nitrogen hypoxia, a process so novel and untested that state officials required the man’s spiritual adviser to sign a waiver that said he could be exposed to the gas. The acknowledgment form, exclusively obtained by NPR, also reveals that the spiritual adviser, Rev. Dr. Jeff Hood, is required to stay at least three feet away from the prisoner, which may violate both their religious liberties.

If Alabama proceeds with the execution, it will be the first time any U.S. state uses nitrogen gas to put a prisoner to death, but the second time Alabama attempts to execute Kenneth Smith.

Alabama’s first attempt in 2022 to execute him failed. Before the execution was ultimately called off last year, Smith spent four hours strapped to a gurney as workers tried to insert needles into his veins to inject him with drugs. Smith’s lawyers requested the state use nitrogen gas instead of lethal injection if they attempted another execution.

Hood had an early warning that this execution might be dangerous.

ADVERTISEMENT

“When I first got in touch with Kenny,” he said, “one of the first things that he asked me was, ‘are you prepared to die to be my spiritual adviser’?”

The Department of Corrections asked Hood to sign a legal document confirming that the new method could put him at risk. The document declared that it was possible, although “highly unlikely,” that the hose supplying gas to Smith’s mask could detach and “an area of free-flowing nitrogen gas could result, creating a small area of risk (approximately two (2) feet) from the outflow.” It was also possible that nitrogen gas could displace oxygen in the air above Smith’s face and head, according to the document, but there would be gas sensors in the room as a safety precaution.

Alabama seeks to execute prisoner using nitrogen gas asphyxiation https://t.co/qyIIXo4tVQ pic.twitter.com/6HdrEoc6Nl

— Reuters (@Reuters) September 22, 2023