In Alabama, this new method of execution has alarmed human rights defenders

United States – a barbaric end. The American state of Alabama is preparing to execute a convict this Thursday, January 25, by nitrogen inhalation, a world first condemned by several human rights organizations, and the UN has compared the method to a form of execution. “torture”.

Kenneth Eugene Smith was sentenced to death definitively in 1996 for the murder of a woman ordered by her husband, it would be the first of the year in the United States, where 24 murders were committed in 2023, all fatal. injection

Alabama’s nitrogen hypoxia execution protocol does not include sedation, although the American Veterinary Association (AVMA) recommends sedation of even larger animals when euthanized. Thus, the spokesperson asserted. Yet the state of Alabama has gone so far as to present it as nitrogen hypoxia “Perhaps the most humane method of execution ever invented”.

Alabama is one of three US states that authorizes the death penalty by nitrogen inhalation, in which death is caused by hypoxia (depletion of oxygen). The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said “alarm”

On January 16 through this scheduled execution “Nitrogen hypoxia, using a new and proven method”..

Cruel means the same as “torture”?

that “may constitute torture or other cruel or degrading treatment under international law”High Commission Spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani warned to put a stop to these executions.

The Equal Justice Initiative, a legal advocacy group that has worked on issues related to the death penalty, said“Experimenting with a method that has never been used before is a very bad idea”. “No state in the country has ever executed a person using nitrogen hypoxia, and Alabama is in no position to use a completely unproven and ineffective method of executing someone.”Angie Setzer, senior attorney for the Equal Justice Initiative, said as quoted by the AP news agency.

“Alabama should delay all executions in order to fully review its capital punishment process and address the serious objections raised about how it carries out the death penalty. », also calls for a petition launched by Death Penalty Action.

“It’s not like nitrogen gas won’t kill you”declared CNN Dr. Joel Zivot, associate professor of anesthesiology and surgery at Emory University. “ But will he kill you in a way that is consistent with the constitutional requirement that it not be cruel and that it not be torture? »

A tired appeal

Kenneth Eugene Smith, whose appeal was denied in Alabama, appealed to the United States Supreme Court on the grounds that this new execution would violate his constitutional rights, and with a request for a stay. But the country’s Supreme Court, with a conservative majority, rejected the request on Wednesday.

The southeastern state’s Republican governor, Kay Ivey, has set Thursday, 06:00 GMT, as the start of a 36-hour period during which enforcement can take place. An earlier attempt to execute Kenneth Eugene Smith by lethal injection, on November 17, 2022, was called off at the last minute after an intravenous infusion to inject him with the lethal solution could not be placed within the legally allotted time, after “Being tied up for many hours”According to their lawyers.

Kenneth Eugene Smith was convicted of the 1988 murder of Elizabeth Dorlene Sennett, 45, who was ordered by her husband, Charles Sennett, a heavily indebted and unfaithful priest, to pose as a burglar. Despite the husband’s suicide, the police tracked down both the killers. Kenneth Eugene Smith’s accomplice, John Forrest Parker, was sentenced to death, and was executed in 2010.

The judge’s opinion is not considered by the judge

Kenneth Smith was also sentenced to death the first time but the trial was overturned on appeal. During his second trial in 1996, jurors were divided on the sentence: 11 out of 12 recommended life imprisonment.

But in his colleague’s case, the judge ignored the jury’s opinion and sentenced him to death, which existed in some states at the time but has now been abolished across the United States.

In its annual report published in December, the specialized Observatory Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC) highlighted that the majority of prisoners in the United States will be executed in 2023.“Perhaps there will be no death penalty today”, particularly due to mental health issues and consideration of legal changes to shock defendants or pronounce the death penalty. 23 American states have abolished the death penalty, while six others observe a moratorium on its application by governor’s decision.

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