A 58-year-old inmate, convicted of a crime, was executed on the night of Thursday to Friday (French time) by nitrogen inhalation and without sedation. This is the first time in the world that this criticized method has been used.
Kenneth Eugene Smith, definitively condemned in 1996 to death for the murder of a woman ordered by her husband, died at Atmore penitentiary 29 minutes after the start of the execution, announced a press release from the attorney general of Alabama.“Justice has been served__. Tonight, Kenneth Smith was put to death for the despicable act he committed 35 years ago.”said Steve Marshall.
It was the first performance of the year in the United States but above all the first, in four decades, for which prison authorities were authorized to test a new method of execution.
The American state of Alabama executed a prisoner sentenced to death by nitrogen inhalation on Thursday, January 25, a world first criticized by the UN, which compared this method of execution to a form of “torture”.
This process was condemned by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, which said “alarm” by the use of a “new and untested mode of execution, nitrogen hypoxia”. That “could constitute torture or other cruel or degrading treatment under international law”warned a spokesperson for the High Commission, Ravina Shamdasani.
The Alabama nitrogen hypoxia execution protocol does not provide for sedation, while the American Veterinary Association (AVMA) recommends administering a sedative to animals euthanized in this way, the spokesperson stressed.
All appeals and requests for a stay by Kenneth Eugene Smith, 58, have been rejected, including on Wednesday by the Supreme Court. The highest court in the country, with a conservative majority, was seized of a final appeal by the convicted person on Thursday, but did not act on it.
Alabama authorities botched three executions in a row in 2022including that of Mr. Smith”recently recalled Robin Maher, the executive director of the American observatory on the death penalty.
Kenneth Eugene Smith was convicted in 1988 of the murder of a woman ordered by her husband. The latter then committed suicide. Kenneth Eugene Smith’s accomplice, John Forrest Parker, also sentenced to death, was executed fourteen years ago.
In its annual activity report published last December, the American Death Penalty Observatory stated that most prisoners executed in 2023 in the United States “would probably not be sentenced to death today”, due to the taking into account in particular of the mental health problems and trauma of the defendants or of legislative changes to inflict the death penalty.
The death penalty has been abolished in 23 American states, while six others observe a moratorium on its application by decision of the governor.