United Nations experts have urgently implored the United States authorities to reconsider the scheduled execution of Kenneth Smith in Alabama on January 25. The unsettling twist in this case is the proposed method: asphyxiation using pure nitrogen, an untested and unprecedented approach that has never been used anywhere in the world.
In a plea for compassion and justice, experts have cautioned that the execution method may subject Smith to “cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or even torture.”
Who is Kenneth Smith?
58-year-old Kenneth Smith is a murder-for-hire who was sentenced to death for a 1988 murder. He is scheduled to be executed on January 25, whereby a face mask connected to a cylinder of nitrogen will be used to cut off his oxygen supply.
Smith found himself in a harrowing situation after Alabama botched his initial execution attempt in November 2022. The lethal injection failed due to multiple futile attempts to establish an intravenous line, leaving him as one of only two individuals in the US to survive an execution attempt.
Cruel execution
International experts, including four UN human rights special rapporteurs, argue that subjecting Smith to asphyxiation with an inert gas raises serious concerns about potential “grave suffering” and “a painful and humiliating death”. They say that the execution would likely violate an international treaty that expressly forbids torture and other forms of cruel, inhuman, or degrading punishment—a treaty to which the United States is a party.
Smith’s lawyers also vehemently assert that this untested execution protocol likely infringes upon the US Constitution’s prohibition against “cruel and unusual punishments.” They also contend that any subsequent attempt to execute him, by any means, would be unconstitutional.
As the legal battle unfolds, a federal judge in Alabama is weighing Smith’s plea for a temporary injunction. It aims to halt the execution and provide space for his lawsuit, challenging the constitutionality of the new protocol to progress.
In the US, executions via lethal injection have been the norm. For this, lethal doses of a barbiturate are used. However, with a European Union’s law banning pharmaceutical companies from selling drugs that could potentially be used in executions, some states have struggled to obtain the drugs,
