2024-01-23 14:19:17
Because an execution with lethal injection failed, a murderer is to be killed in a new way. There is criticism that an experiment is being carried out on a human being.
A thousand US dollars: That’s why the then 22-year-old Kenneth Eugene Smith got involved in a contract killing in March 1988. A short time later, the client’s wife was dead, murdered in her home on a country road in remote northern Alabama. Smith and two accomplices were caught – one received a life sentence, the other was executed by lethal injection in 2010. Smith was also sentenced to death.
Alabama is one of the US states where murderers are threatened with execution. But never before has a person been executed there or in the rest of the USA – probably even worldwide – using so-called nitrogen hypoxia. In the untested procedure, a person is given nitrogen via a face mask. The result is death from lack of oxygen. Smith (58) is expected to die this way within a 30-hour period from Thursday to Friday. In 2022, his execution with lethal injection failed.
Human rights experts warn that it might be torture. According to the UN, there is a lack of scientific evidence that inhalation of pure nitrogen does not cause serious suffering. “An experiment is being carried out on a human being here,” warns Amnesty International.
Smith used the 15 minutes he was allowed to make a phone call to the Guardian, the British newspaper reported on Sunday. He was plagued by nightmares regarding having to return to the execution chamber. “I’m not ready for that,” he said. Court documents show that Smith was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder following the first execution attempt. Prison staff were unable to insert the cannula into his arm. After several hours of lying strapped to an execution table, he was returned to his cell.
The death penalty still exists in the United States today in the military, at the federal level and in 27 of the 50 states, although it is de facto no longer carried out in California, for example. The approved methods vary. Hypoxia is also permitted in Oklahoma and Mississippi. There is a gas chamber in Arizona, among other places. Idaho did not reintroduce firing squads until 2023. However, these methods are only used very rarely. People are more likely to be executed in the electric chair, primarily in South Carolina. By far the most frequently used method in other US states – especially Texas – is execution by lethal injection. Since 1976, 1,402 of a total of 1,582 executions have been carried out this way.
Many pharmaceutical companies block the use of their medications or the equipment required for the injection. A legal dispute has also been raging for years over the question of the extent to which the US Food and Drug Administration should be involved. However, states can avoid bottlenecks and approval issues by purchasing the poison cocktails from so-called compounding pharmacies.
Because the US Association of Doctors and Nursing Personnel (AMA) prohibits its approximately 270,000 members from taking part in executions, these are sometimes not carried out by specialist personnel.
The lawyers have so far tried in vain to stop the second execution date. In addition to an ongoing appeal in district court, they are simultaneously arguing the Eighth Amendment before the US Supreme Court. This prohibits “cruel and unusual punishments”. The lawyers write that the failed execution is already included. It is unclear whether the Supreme Court will take up their request. The Republican Governor of Alabama, Kay Ivey, might stop the execution by decree.
A slim majority in the US continues to support the death penalty for murderers – including the son of the woman whose murder Smith was involved in. “When you commit a crime, you know you have to pay for it,” he told broadcaster WAAY in 2022. “My sister-in-law is a nurse. We’ll bring her with us next time. She’ll find it (the vein).” In 2023, 24 death sentences were carried out and 21 were pronounced in the USA. Ten years ago there were significantly more. 2,331 people are awaiting execution.
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