UN experts join uproar over US plans for nitrogen gas execution

‘We are concerned that nitrogen hypoxia would result in a painful and humiliating death,’ the UN experts warned

United Nations experts have called on the US to halt its plans to use nitrogen hypoxia to kill an inmate in an upcoming execution.

The experts — Morris Tidball-Binz, Alice Jill Edwards, Tlaeng Mofokeng and Margaret Satterthwaite, all with the Human Rights Council's special procedures programme — said using the method could constitute subjecting the inmate to "cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or even torture," according to Reuters.

Alabama is planning to use the capital punishment method — which uses nitrogen to deprive an inmate of oxygen — to execute Kenneth Smith. Smith was convicted in a murder-for-hire scheme in 1988. His execution is scheduled for 25 January.

The inmate survived a previous execution attempt when the state of Alabama botched a lethal injection in November 2022.

Alabama, Oklahoma, and Mississippi are the only states that allow nitrogen hypoxia to be used in executions.

UN Rapporteurs advising against the use of the method noted that it will be the first time nitrogen hypoxia has been attempted, and warned it could cause "grave suffering" to Smith. They maintained that it could violate rules prohibiting torture and other cruel, inhuman, or degrading punishments for convicts.

Death Penalty Alabama Nitrogen (Alabama Department of Corrections)

"We are concerned that nitrogen hypoxia would result in a painful and humiliating death," they said.

Smith's legal team have echoed similar concerns, pointing to the US's ban on "cruel and unusual punishments" as reason enough not to go ahead with the execution. They have further argued that — after the botched execution in 2022 — any attempt by the US to end Smith's life should be viewed as unconstitutional.

Reverend Jeffrey Hood, who works with death row inmates, has filed a lawsuit challenging the use of nitrogen gas in capital punishments, arguing that its potential danger to other individuals in the execution chamber — which critics have warned is a possibility — prevents him from providing support to Smith during the procedure, CBS News reports.

US States that still allow executions have struggled in recent years to obtain the chemicals needed to carry out effective lethal injection executions, largely due to an agreement from the European Union banning the sale of the needed chemicals to the US if they are intended for executions.