The American state of Alabama on Thursday executed a convict by nitrogen inhalation, a world first that the UN had previously denounced, comparing this method of execution to a form of “torture”.
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Kenneth Eugene Smith, who was finally sentenced to death in 1996 for the murder of a woman ordered by her husband, died at 8:25 p.m. local time (2:25 a.m. GMT on Friday) in Atmore Prison, several local media reported, citing one Statement from Alabama Governor Kay Ivey.
His execution was the first of the year in the United States, which saw 24 executions in 2023, all by lethal injection. This is the first time in more than 40 years that a new method of execution has been used in this country.
A previous attempt at a lethal injection on November 17, 2022 was aborted at the last minute because the intravenous infusions to administer the lethal solution to Kenneth Eugene Smith could not be completed within the time allowed by law, although he remained bound for several hours.
Alabama, located in the southeastern United States, is one of three US states that allow execution by nitrogen inhalation, where death is caused by hypoxia (lack of oxygen).
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said on January 16 that it was “alarmed” by the use of a “new and untested method of execution, nitrogen hypoxia.”
This “could constitute torture or other cruel or degrading treatment under international law,” warned Ravina Shamdasani, spokeswoman for the High Commission, calling for a stay of this execution.
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Alabama's nitrogen hypoxia implementation protocol does not require sedation, while the American Veterinary Association (AVMA) recommends that animals euthanized in this manner be given a sedative, the spokesman noted.
All appeals and requests for a stay by 58-year-old Kenneth Eugene Smith have been rejected, including by the Supreme Court on Wednesday. The country's highest court, with a conservative majority, heard a final appeal from the convicted person on Thursday but did not act on it.
In its written arguments before the Supreme Court, the state of Alabama went so far as to portray nitrogen hypoxia as “perhaps the most humane method of execution ever invented.”
“Alabama authorities missed three consecutive executions in 2022, including Mr. Smith’s,” said Robin Maher, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC).
“Maybe they feel more comfortable moving on to a completely different way of doing it, even if it is completely experimental and has never been tested,” she continued in an interview with AFP.
“I'm still traumatized from the last time,” Kenneth Eugene Smith confessed in an interview with NPR public radio in December, admitting that he was “completely afraid” of reliving an execution attempt.
He was convicted of the 1988 murder of 45-year-old Elizabeth Dorlene Sennett, which was ordered by her husband Charles Sennett, a heavily indebted and unfaithful clergyman, to create the appearance of a burglary gone wrong.
Despite the man's suicide, the police were able to track down the two murderers. Kenneth Eugene Smith's death row accomplice, John Forrest Parker, was executed in 2010.
Kenneth Smith was also sentenced to the death penalty for the first time, but the trial was overturned on appeal. During his second trial in 1996, 11 of the 12 jurors favored a life sentence.
But as at his accomplice's trial, the judge ignored the jury's opinion and sentenced him to the death penalty, a possibility that existed in some states at the time but has since been abolished throughout the United States.
In its December annual report, the DPIC noted that most prisoners executed in the United States in 2023 “were unlikely to be sentenced to death today,” particularly due to consideration of defendants' mental health issues and trauma or changes in the law to enforce the death penalty.
The death penalty has been abolished in 23 US states, while six others have a moratorium on its use by governor's order.