By Jonathan Allen
(Reuters) – Alabama plans to carry out the first known judicial execution of a prisoner using asphyxiation with nitrogen gas on Thursday evening, a closely watched new method the state hopes to advance as a viable, simpler alternative to lethal injections.
Kenneth Smith, convicted of a 1988 murder-for-hire, is a rare prisoner who has already survived one execution attempt. In November 2022, Alabama officials aborted his execution by lethal injection after struggling for hours to insert an intravenous line’s needle in his body.
Under the new protocol, which was announced in a heavily redacted form in September, officials will restrain Smith in a gurney and strap a commercial industrial-safety respirator mask to his face. A canister of pure nitrogen will be attached to the mask, intended to deprive him of inhaling any oxygen.
Alabama has called it the “the most painless and humane method of execution known to man,” and says he should lose consciousness within a minute or two, and die soon after.