Alabama executes prisoner with new nitrogen asphyxiation method

Alabama on Thursday night executed Kenneth Smith, the first death row inmate known to die by nitrogen gas, marking the emergence of a wholly new method of execution in the United States that experts have said could lead to excessive pain or even torture, Report informs, citing CNN.

Smith, who was sentenced to death for his role in a 1988 murder for hire, had survived the state’s initial attempt to execute him by lethal injection in 2022. Earlier Thursday, the US Supreme Court denied his last-minute appeal to halt the execution after declining the same request on Wednesday.

Smith’s time of death was 8:25 p.m. local time, officials announced. In a news conference after the execution, Alabama Department of Corrections Commissioner John Hamm said nitrogen was running for about 15 minutes.