Kenneth Eugene Smith, 58, was sentenced to death in 1989 after being convicted of murder. He will be the first death row inmate to be executed by nitrogen gas in the state of Alabama.
Alabama is one of three US states that approves execution by oxygen asphyxiation. Photo: DW
In 2022, he suffered a botched execution by lethal injection, which his lawyers said caused him severe physical and psychological pain, including post-traumatic stress disorder.
If carried out, Smith's execution would be the first using gas since 1999, when a convicted murderer was put to death with hydrogen cyanide gas.
Smith's execution is scheduled to take place unless he receives a last-minute pardon from a federal court in an effort to stop the execution.
Nitrogen gas is administered through a mask, depriving the body of oxygen and causing death. Alabama is one of three states that have approved the use of this method for executions.
Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall described the controversial method as "perhaps the most humane method of execution ever devised."
However, Ravina Shamdasani, a spokeswoman for the UN Human Rights Office in Geneva, warned that the method could “constitute torture or other forms of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, under international human rights law”.
There will be 24 executions in the US in 2023, all carried out by lethal injection.
US states that still impose the death penalty are finding it increasingly difficult to obtain sedatives for use in lethal injection procedures.
The death penalty has been abolished in 23 US states, while the governors of six other states - Arizona, California, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania and Tennessee - have suspended its use.
Mai Anh (according to AFP, AP, Reuters)
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