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Kenneth Smith, convicted for a murder-for-hire committed in
1988, is scheduled to be executed in the U.S. state of Alabama
on Jan. 25 using the method, which is intended to deprive him of
oxygen by using a face mask connected to a cylinder of nitrogen.
Smith, 58, is one of only two people alive in the U.S. to have
survived an execution attempt after Alabama botched his
previously scheduled execution by lethal injection in November
2022 when multiple attempts to insert an intravenous line into a
vein failed.
"This will be the first attempt at nitrogen hypoxia execution,"
four U.N. Special Rapporteurs said in a statement, saying the
method could cause "grave suffering" and likely be at odds with
the prohibition on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading
punishment.
"We are concerned that nitrogen hypoxia would result in a
painful and humiliating death."
Smith's lawyers have said the untested gassing protocol may
violate the U.S. Constitution's ban on "cruel and unusual
punishments", and have argued a second attempt to execute him by
any method is unconstitutional.
Most U.S. executions are carried out using lethal doses of a
barbiturate, but some states have struggled to obtain the drugs
because of a European Union law banning pharmaceutical companies
from selling drugs that can be used in executions to prisons.
(Reporting by Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber; Editing by Philippa
Fletcher)
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