The United Nations is expressing alarm over this month’s planned execution of Kenneth Smith. The death row inmate is scheduled to die by what’s called nitrogen hypoxia. Smith’s execution would be the first of its kind in the nation. Nitrogen hypoxia is authorized as an execution method in Alabama, Mississippi and Oklahoma but has never been used to put an inmate to death. The proposed execution method would use a gas mask, placed over Smith's nose and mouth, to replace breathable air with nitrogen, causing Smith to die from lack of oxygen.
That’s what the UN is opposing. In a release, the organization said…
“The recently approved ‘Executions’ Protocol’ of the State of Alabama, allows for the use of nitrogen gas asphyxiation. “We are concerned that nitrogen hypoxia would result in a painful and humiliating death,” the experts said. They warned that experimental executions by gas asphyxiation – such as nitrogen hypoxia – will likely violate the prohibition on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading punishment.”
The UN says “punishments that cause severe pain or suffering, beyond harms inherent in lawful sanctions likely violate the Convention against Torture, to which the United States is a party, and the Body of Principles for the Protection of All Persons under Any Form of Detention or Imprisonment, guarantees that no detainee shall be subjected to medical or scientific experimentation which may be detrimental to his health.”
The United Nations is appealing to the State of Alabama to halt the execution.
Kenneth Smith’s legal team is working on a different track. They argue Attorneys for Smith argued the new execution method is unconstitutional and also cited religious concerns. His attorneys said the mask, which Alabama intends to place over his face before execution witnesses arrive, would interfere with his ability to pray aloud and make a final statement before his execution.
A federal judge who is weighing whether to allow the nation's first execution by nitrogen hypoxia to go forward next month has urged Alabama to change procedures so the inmate can pray and say final words before the gas mask is placed on his face. U.S. District Judge R. Austin Huffaker asked all sides to submit information last month before he rules on the inmate's request to block the execution.
