The state of Alabama, in the southern United States, carried it out on Thursday the first execution of a death row inmate using nitrogen gasin the first application of this method in the country that the UN equates with ‘torture’.

The inmate Kenneth Eugene Smithsentenced to death in 1996 for the murder of a woman on the orders of her husband, was declared dead at 8:25 p.m. (02:25 GMT on Friday), 29 minutes after the start of the execution, according to a statement from the attorney general of Alabama.

“Justice has been done. Tonight, Kenneth Smith was executed for the heinous act he committed 35 years agoSteve Marshall declared, stating that Alabama “achieved something historic.”

His execution is the first of the year in the United States, where there have been 24 in 2023, all by lethal injection. And it is the first time in more than forty years that a new execution method has been introduced in the country.

A previous lethal injection attempt, on November 17, 2022, was canceled when prison officials were unable to insert the intravenous line to administer the drugs within the legally required time, after “after being tied up for several hours“said his lawyers.

Alabama is one of three states in the country that allow executions by nitrogen inhalation, in which death occurs due to hypoxia, that is, lack of oxygen.

The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said last week that it was “alarmed” by this planned execution.using an unpublished and untested method: nitrogen hypoxia”.

This “may constitute torture or other cruel or degrading treatment under international law,” warned spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani, who called for the execution to be stayed.

Alabama’s nitrogen hypoxia implementation protocol does not provide for sedationdespite the fact that the American Veterinary Association (AVMA) recommends administering a sedative to animals euthanized in this manner, the spokesperson added.

“Traumatized”

Kenneth Eugene Smith, 58, appealed to the United States Supreme Court, claiming that this new execution attempt would violate his constitutional rights and also requesting a stay. Previously, all appeals he filed in Alabama were rejected.

But the country’s highest court, with a majority of conservative justices, rejected the request on Wednesday.

In its pleadings, the state of Alabama notes that nitrogen hypoxia “may be the most humane method of execution ever invented.”

“Alabama authorities have botched three executions in a row in 2022, including that of Mr. Smith,” said Robin Maher, executive director of the specialized observatory Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC).

“Perhaps they will feel more comfortable switching to a completely different mode of performance, even if it is completely experimental and has never been tested“, he explained to the AFP.

“I’m still traumatized from the last time,” the inmate admitted in an interview with NPR in December, admitting he was “absolutely terrified” at the prospect of having to experience the same thing again.

In 1988, he was convicted of murdering Elizabeth Dorlene Sennett, 45, on orders from her husband, Charles Sennett, a deeply indebted and unfaithful preacher, to make it look like a robbery gone wrong.

Although the man committed suicide, police followed the murder trail that led to two men. Kenneth Eugene Smith’s accomplice, John Forrest Parker, who was sentenced to death, was executed in 2010.

Kenneth Smith was also once sentenced to death, but the trial was overturned on appeal.

In 1996, during his second trial, eleven of the twelve jurors were in favor of life imprisonment.

But in his case, as in that of his accomplice, The judge overruled the jurors and sentenced him to death, a possibility that existed in some states at the time. but which has now been abolished throughout the country.

In its December annual report, the DPIC Observatory noted that the majority of prisoners executed in the United States in 2023 “would likely not be sentenced to death today.”

It is based on changes in legislation and the fact that mental health problems and trauma of suspects are now taken into account more.

The death penalty has been abolished in 23 states in the country and another six have a moratorium on its use by order of the governor. (JO)