Reactions to Nitrogen Gas Execution in Alabama, USA; White House: 'Extremely Disturbing'

The first execution using nitrogen gas in Alabama, USA, has sparked widespread reactions and criticism from human rights advocates and organizations. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights stated that this method could be considered 'torture' and condemned it. Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House Press Secretary, also said that this execution was 'extremely disturbing' for the US government. She added that President Joe Biden has long expressed deep concerns about the method of execution and its alignment with American values. During his 2020 election campaign, Biden promised to abolish federal death penalty, but he has only gone as far as the Department of Justice supporting a halt to federal executions. Kenneth Eugene Smith, a 58-year-old death row inmate in Alabama, was executed on Thursday, January 25, using nitrogen gas. This is reported to be the first known instance in the world of such a method being used for an execution, following the US Supreme Court's refusal to stop it. Five journalists present at the execution reported that Smith appeared alert several minutes after the nitrogen gas was released into his mask. They noted that he experienced severe shaking for at least two minutes, but the Alabama Commissioner of Corrections stated that this shaking was 'involuntary' and deemed what occurred as 'natural.' Smith was convicted in 1988 for the murder of Elizabeth Sennett, hired by her husband for a thousand dollars. He narrowly escaped execution in November 2022 when Alabama officials struggled for hours to insert a lethal injection needle into his body. According to Reuters, Reverend Jeff Hood, Smith's spiritual advisor, was present during the execution and stated that prison officials in the room were 'clearly surprised by how poorly the process went.' Human rights activists and medical experts expressed concerns that the use of nitrogen gas could lead to torture before death and called for the discontinuation of this experimental method. The execution took place after a legal battle up to the last moment, where Smith's lawyers claimed that the state was using him as a guinea pig for this method, which could violate the US constitutional prohibition against cruel punishment. The Supreme Court did not agree to halt the execution before it took place. Several US states are seeking new methods for executing inmates as finding drugs used in lethal injections has become difficult. Three states, Alabama, Mississippi, and Oklahoma, have authorized nitrogen hypoxia as a permissible execution method, but this experimental method had not been used before. Virginia has also abolished the death penalty by the governor's order. The federal government of the USA is resuming the death penalty for heinous criminals. Texas, following the Supreme Court ruling, is preventing the presence of religious clergy at execution sites. Trump's reaction to the suspension of the death penalty in California: 'Neither the victims' families nor I are satisfied with this decision.'