Digital Media Center
Bryant-Denny Stadium, Gate 61
920 Paul Bryant Drive
Tuscaloosa, AL 35487-0370
(800) 654-4262

© 2025 Alabama Public Radio
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
Thanks to generous corporate supporters, APR is able to provide the opportunity for listeners to attend performances. Ticket giveaway entries and details can be found here.

Alabama schedules its fifth execution by nitrogen hypoxia

Anti-death penalty activists place signs along the road heading to Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, Ala., ahead of the scheduled execution of Kenneth Eugene Smith on Thursday, Jan. 25, 2024. The state plans to put Smith to death with nitrogen gas, the first time the new method has been used in the United States. (AP Photo/Kim Chandler)
Kim Chandler/AP
/
AP
Anti-death penalty activists place signs along the road heading to Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, Ala., ahead of the scheduled execution of Kenneth Eugene Smith on Thursday, Jan. 25, 2024. The state plans to put Smith to death with nitrogen gas, the first time the new method has been used in the United States. (AP Photo/Kim Chandler)

Alabama plans to carry out another execution by nitrogen gas and has set a June execution date for a man convicted of the 1988 killing of a woman. Gregory Hunt is scheduled to be put to death June 10 for the 1988 beating death of Karen Lane. Alabama Governor Kay Ivey announced the execution date following authorization by the Alabama Supreme Court.

Alabama last year became the first state to carry out an execution with nitrogen gas. Nitrogen has now been used in five executions — four in Alabama and one in Louisiana. The method involves using a gas mask to force a person to breathe pure nitrogen gas, depriving them of the oxygen needed to stay alive.

If the execution goes forward, Hunt would be the sixth person put to death by the new execution method. Lane was found dead on August, 2 1988, in the Cordova apartment she shared with another woman. Hunt had been dating the victim, Lane, for about one month before her death, according to court records. Prosecutors said Hunt broke into her apartment and killed her. A physician who performed an autopsy testified that Lane had sustained some 60 injuries, including 20 to the head.

A jury in 1990 convicted Hunt of capital murder and recommended by a vote of 11-1 that he receive a death sentence. The Alabama attorney general's office, in a motion seeking the execution date, wrote there was no doubt about his guilt and said that Hunt had admitted to his cellmate that he killed Lane. Lawyers for Hunt had asked the court to wait on an execution date. They argued that a February U.S. Supreme Court decision could be applicable to his longstanding claim that his conviction was unconstitutionally obtained by false or misleading evidence.

Hunt had named nitrogen as his preferred method. The selection was made before Alabama had developed procedures for using gas. Alabama also allows to choose lethal injection or the electric chair. If the execution goes forward, it would be the third execution in Alabama this year.

Related Content
  • The State of Alabama is preparing to conduct its third execution with nitrogen gas tonight. Carey Grayson is within hours of a death sentence for the 1994 killing of a Jefferson County woman. The use of nitrogen hypoxia is still considered controversial and experimental. We got an international view of the situation, and an explanation on how we got here.
  • Alabama is just over a day away from the first ever execution using nitrogen gas. Kenneth Eugene Smith is on death row for the murder for hire of a preacher’s wife in 1988. The State wants to use a face mask on the inmate to pump in nitrogen until he dies of suffocation. Alabama claims the process is painless. The non-profit, non-partisan, criminal justice journalism organization The Marshall Project calls it experimental.
  • Alabama is seeking to become the first state to execute a prisoner by making him breathe pure nitrogen. The Alabama attorney general's office on Friday asked the state Supreme Court to set an execution date for death row inmate Kenneth Eugene Smith, 58. The court filing indicated Alabama plans to put him to death by nitrogen hypoxia, an execution method that is authorized in three states but has never been used.
News from Alabama Public Radio is a public service in association with the University of Alabama. We depend on your help to keep our programming on the air and online. Please consider supporting the news you rely on with a donation today. Every contribution, no matter the size, propels our vital coverage. Thank you.