Planned execution of death row inmate in Alabama nitrogen hypoxia A senior United Nations human rights official said Tuesday that next week's torture amounted to torture and inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
Last week, a federal judge ruled that Alabama could use the nitrogen gas death penalty for 58-year-old Kenneth Eugene Smith. Smith was convicted of commission murder in 1988 for the murder of a preacher's wife.
“We are alarmed by the impending execution of Kenneth Eugene Smith in the United States of America, which involved the novel and untested method of asphyxiation with nitrogen gas, a method that is not considered torture. or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment under international human rights law,'' said Ravina Shamdasani, spokesperson for UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk. statement.
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Kenneth Eugene Smith was convicted of murder in the 1988 murder of a preacher's wife. (Alabama Department of Corrections, via AP/File)
Smith was sentenced to death for the 1988 crime. contract murder He and accomplice John Forrest Parker stabbed the preacher's wife, Elizabeth Sennett, eight times for $1,000 each. Mr. Smith was nearly executed by lethal injection in November 2022, but the process failed.
His lawyers said the state of Alabama was trying to use Smith as a “guinea pig” for an untried method of execution after he survived an earlier attempt to execute him by lethal injection.
They said in legal filings that returning Smith to the state's death chamber would pose double jeopardy and that testing new death penalty methods on inmates would violate his constitutional rights. insisted.
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Stretchers are used to administer lethal injections to condemned prisoners. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki/File)
Mr. Turk said Mr. Smith's planned execution violates two international human rights treaties to which the United States is bound: the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Convention on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, Degrading Treatment and Punishment. has expressed concern that it may violate the treaty.
Shamdasani said: “The execution of Smith in these circumstances may violate the prohibition against torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, and the right to effective redress.'' I am seriously concerned.”
Tuesday's statement said, “While the American Veterinary Medical Association recommends that even large animals be sedated when euthanized using this method, Alabama's protocol for execution by nitrogen asphyxiation does not There is no provision for sedation of a person before execution.”
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Convicted murderer Kenneth Eugene Smith (top left) becomes the first person in Alabama to be executed by nitrogen hypoxia, while eight other inmates on the state's death row have petitioned to be executed by this method. There is. Lee Burton, Jeffrey West, Gregory Hunt. Robin Myers, bottom left, David Lee Roberts, Demetrius Frazier, Carrie Dale Grayson. (Mugshot: Alabama Department of Corrections | Background photo: Giles Clarke/Getty Images)
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The protocol stipulates that the odorless, colorless gas be administered for up to 15 minutes.
The execution method requires a respirator-like mask to be placed over Smith's nose and mouth. Breathable air is gradually replaced by nitrogen gas, and inmates die from lack of oxygen. In theory, it shouldn't cause any pain that makes it impossible to breathe.
Mr. Smith is scheduled to be executed on January 25th.
Fox News Digital reached out to the Alabama Department of Corrections.
