Four UN rapporteurs expressed concern on Wednesday over the planned execution by nitrogen inhalation of a death row inmate in the United States, saying that this method, which would be a world first, could cause “serious suffering “.
In this type of execution, death is caused by hypoxia (oxygen depletion).
Independent UN experts are concerned about the “severe suffering that execution by nitrogen inhalation could cause” and say in a statement that there is “no scientific evidence” to the contrary.
The communiqué is signed by the special rapporteurs on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, Morris Tidball-Binz, on torture, Alice Jill Edwards, on the independence of judges and lawyers, Margaret Satterthwaite, and on the right to health physical and mental, Tlaleng Mofokeng.
According to these experts, the state of Alabama plans to execute Kenneth Smith on January 25.
“This will be the first trial of execution by nitrogen hypoxia,” indicate the United Nations experts, who are mandated by the Human Rights Council of the international organization, but do not comment. in his name.
“We fear that nitrogen hypoxia could lead to a painful and humiliating death,” they observe.
According to them, “experimental executions by gas asphyxiation — such as nitrogen hypoxia — would likely violate the ban on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading punishments.”
They call on federal and Alabama state authorities to halt the execution of Mr. Smith and anyone else scheduled to be executed in this manner, pending a review of the execution protocol .
The execution of Mr. Smith by lethal injection in November 2022 for a murder on command committed in 1988 was canceled at the last minute, the intravenous drips to inject him with the lethal solution not having been able to be placed within the legally allotted time.
His death sentence sparked controversy.
In 1988, an unfaithful and indebted husband hired him and another hitman to kill his wife during a fake burglary. Despite the husband’s suicide, the police had traced the two killers.
Kenneth Smith was first sentenced to the death penalty, but the trial was overturned on appeal. At his second trial in 1996, he was again found guilty of murder, but the jurors were divided on the sentence: 11 out of 12 recommended a life sentence.
Overriding their opinion, a judge imposed the death penalty on him. His lawyers tried to obtain a stay from the Supreme Court of the United States on Wednesday, but the high court rejected their appeal.