It is a world first, despite criticism, an American state resorts to the inhalation of nitrogen to execute a death row.
Kenneth Eugene Smith had been sentenced to the murder of a woman committed in 1988, he was executed this Friday, January 26, 2024 in a prison in the US Alabama state.
Indeed, this execution is the first of the year in the United States, where twenty-four were carried out in 2023, all by lethal injection.
The inhalation of nitrogen immediately leads to asphyxiation, which is a death for lack of oxygen. For the United Nations, the use of inert gas and nitrogen for execution practices does not comply with ethical standards and human rights.
“Tonight, Alabama took a step back to humanity (…). I go with love, peace and light (…). Thank you for supporting me. I love you all, ”said the sentence to death a few minutes before his execution.
According to a CBS journalist who attended the execution, the convicted “began to twist and struggle for approximately two to four minutes, followed by about five minutes of noisy breathing”.
