2024-01-25 14:48:21
The American state of Alabama is preparing to put a condemned man to death by nitrogen inhalation on Thursday, a world first denounced by the UN which compared this method of execution to a form of “torture”.
The execution of Kenneth Eugene Smith, definitively sentenced in 1996 to the death penalty for the murder of a woman ordered by her husband, will be the first of the year in the United States, where 24 have been carried out in 2023, all by lethal injection. The Republican governor of this southeastern state, Kay Ivey, has set Thursday, 06:00 GMT, as the start of the 36-hour period during which the execution can be held.
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A previous attempt to execute Kenneth Eugene Smith by lethal injection, on November 17, 2022, was canceled at the last minute, the intravenous infusions to inject him with the lethal solution not having been able to be placed within the legally allotted time, following “being tied up for several hours,” according to his lawyers. Alabama is one of three US states authorizing executions by nitrogen inhalation, in which death is caused by hypoxia (oxygen depletion).
The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said it was “alarmed” on January 16 by this planned execution “using a new and untested method, nitrogen hypoxia. “.
This “might constitute torture or other cruel or degrading treatment under international law,” warned a spokesperson for the High Commission, Ravina Shamdasani, calling for a stay of this execution.
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