©A mugshot of Kenneth Smith on November 17, 2022, a convicted murderer executed in the US state of Alabama using nitrogen gas. (Alabama Department of Corrections, AFP)
The US state of Alabama executed a convicted murderer on Thursday using nitrogen gas, marking the first use of a method criticized by the UN rights chief as potentially constituting torture.
The southern US state of Alabama put to death a convicted murderer using nitrogen gas on Thursday, the first time the country has used a method that the UN rights chief said may amount to torture.
Kenneth Eugene Smith was pronounced dead at 8:25 PM (0225 GMT Friday), according to the state attorney general.
Smith, 58, was on death row for more than three decades after being convicted of the 1988 murder-for-hire of a pastor's wife.
He was put to death at Holman Prison in Atmore, Alabama by nitrogen hypoxia, which involved pumping nitrogen gas into a facemask, causing him to suffocate.
According to media witnesses, he "began writhing and thrashing for approximately two to four minutes, followed by around five minutes of heavy breathing," local news outlet AL.com reported.
"This novel and untested method of suffocation by nitrogen gas may amount to torture, or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment," human rights chief Volker Turk said, according to a statement.
Robin Maher, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, called it "an untested, unproven method of execution."
Smith was subjected to a botched execution attempt in November 2022, when prison officials were unable to set intravenous lines to administer a lethal injection.
While nitrogen gas had never previously been used to execute humans in the United States, it is sometimes used to kill animals.
Alabama is one of three US states that have approved the use of nitrogen hypoxia as a method of execution, along with Oklahoma and Mississippi.
Katrine Dige Houmøller, with AFP
The southern US state of Alabama put to death a convicted murderer using nitrogen gas on Thursday, the first time the country has used a method that the UN rights chief said may amount to torture.
Kenneth Eugene Smith was pronounced dead at 8:25 PM (0225 GMT Friday), according to the state attorney general.
Smith, 58, was on death row for more than three decades after being convicted of the 1988 murder-for-hire of a pastor's wife.
He was put to death at Holman Prison in Atmore, Alabama by nitrogen hypoxia, which involved pumping nitrogen gas into a facemask, causing him to suffocate.
According to media witnesses, he "began writhing and thrashing for approximately two to four minutes, followed by around five minutes of heavy breathing," local news outlet AL.com reported.
"This novel and untested method of suffocation by nitrogen gas may amount to torture, or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment," human rights chief Volker Turk said, according to a statement.
Robin Maher, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, called it "an untested, unproven method of execution."
Smith was subjected to a botched execution attempt in November 2022, when prison officials were unable to set intravenous lines to administer a lethal injection.
While nitrogen gas had never previously been used to execute humans in the United States, it is sometimes used to kill animals.
Alabama is one of three US states that have approved the use of nitrogen hypoxia as a method of execution, along with Oklahoma and Mississippi.
Katrine Dige Houmøller, with AFP
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