US tests nitrogen for use as an execution method

The death sentence USA plans to apply this Thursday against the inmate Kenneth Eugene Smith will test an unprecedented method, the nitrogen gaswhich is in the spotlight because its detractors report that it can cause excessive pain in the process and even involve torture.

Alabama is, along with Oklahoma and Mississippi, one of the three states in the country that allows their use in death sentences due to the increasing difficulty of obtaining lethal injection drugs due to the refusal of pharmaceutical companies to allow them to be used for that purpose. .

Smith, 58 years old and convicted in 1989 for the contract murder of a woman, has had to be the “guinea pig”according to what he himself denounces in a fruitless legal battle to try to avoid it.

A millimeter protocol but without antecedents

Nitrogen hypoxia is a procedure in which nitrogen, pure or in a concentration high enough to be lethal, is inhaled to the point of asphyxiation. The prisoner receives it through an airtight mask.

The protocol for its application drafted by the Alabama Department of Corrections in August of last year requires its technicians to verify that the volume of gas in the cylinder exceeds the minimum acceptance threshold.

That document specifies that when nitrogen is used in executions, the presence of a spiritual advisor will not be allowed on the call. “death chamber” unless the latter has signed a consent against possible risks.

The final stretch leading up to that moment, which Smith has set for this Thursday at 6:00 p.m. local time (00:00 GMT on Friday), began seven days earlier. For at least two days, members of the execution team must review a process that includes rehearsing the transfer of the inmate from his cell to the death chamber.

Alabama has hidden some details in that public protocol, but the stipulated choreography details that designated officials must remove the mask, connect it to the breathing tube and place the material in the fixed place inside the room.

There will be oxygen meters on the wall that will have been checked several times to ensure they are charged and the audible alarm is working.

Smith, according to that roadmap, will be fitted with a pulse oximeter that shows the level of oxygen saturation in the blood. She will have the opportunity to give a final speech of no more than two minutes in length and the administration of the nitrogen itself will not last longer than 15.

Before staff enter the room to declare your death, the room will be ventilated.

Smith, as indicated on Wednesday by CNN, will not be allowed to eat from ten in the morning to minimize the risk of vomiting and that he could choke when inhaling or swallowing his own expulsions through the mask.

Unanimous reviews

Amnesty International recalls that in November 2022 an attempt was made to execute him with a lethal injection but there were problems when introducing intravenous lines.

A federal court described that episode as “frightening”, according to the NGO, and three Supreme Court judges described it as torture, causing him to suffer “enormous pain and suffering” that caused post-traumatic stress disorder.

Although the state of Alabama claims that oxygen hypoxia is the method of execution “most painless and humane known to man” and maintains that it results in rapid unconsciousness, warnings about it have even come from the UN.

High Commissioner for Human Rights Ravina Shamdasani has expressed deep concern and has called on the state of Alabama not only to halt Smith’s execution, but to refrain from carrying out any such executions in the future.