ATMORE, USA: The UN, EU and anti-death penalty activists have condemned the first execution of a prisoner using nitrogen gas, in the USA.
Kenneth Eugene Smith was put to death Thursday night at a prison in Atmore, Alabama in the USA.
A journalist who witnessed the execution told the media that Smith thrashed violently on the gurney.
Smith was convicted in 1989 of murdering a preacher’s wife, Elizabeth Sennett, in a killing-for-hire.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, said he had “serious concerns this novel and untested method of suffocation by nitrogen gas may amount to torture, or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment”.
EU officials, in a statement, called nitrogen gas “a particularly cruel and unusual punishment”.
One of the five reporters who witnessed the execution told the media it was unlike any other he had seen.
“I’ve been to four previous executions and I’ve never seen a condemned inmate thrash in the way that Kenneth Smith reacted to the nitrogen gas,”, Lee Hedgepeth, an Alabama journalist told the media.
“Kenny just began to gasp for air repeatedly and the execution took about 25 minutes total.”
Inhaling pure nitrogen cuts off the oxygen supply to the brain. According to the Death Penalty Information Center, this procedure has never been used in an execution before.
Smith’s spiritual adviser, the Reverend Jeff Hood, said after the execution: “What we saw was minutes of someone struggling for their life.”
Commissioner of the Alabama Department of Corrections, John Hamm, said it “appeared that Smith was holding his breath as long as he could.”
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters Friday that the Biden administration found the execution “very troubling” and that it would continue to enforce a ban on executions to be carried out by the federal government.
According to a media report, Smith’s last words were: “Tonight Alabama caused humanity to take a step backward. I’m leaving with love, peace and light. Thank you for supporting me. Love all of you.”
Reporters said he also made an “I love you” sign with sign language. Smith was one of two men convicted of murdering Mrs Sennett.
Mrs Sennett was beaten with a fireplace tool and stabbed in the neck and chest, and her death was staged to look like a home invasion and burglary.
