Nitrogen gas: a cruel and unusual punishment

An article has reported that Alabama has set their first executions for February 2025, which include Demetrius Frazier, who is set to be executed by suffocation with nitrogen gas.

Mr Frazier’s lawyers are suing the state in federal court arguing that the state’s protocol for nitrogen gas executions is designed to inflict superadded terror or pain.

However, this won’t be the first time Alabama has used nitrogen gas as a method of execution.

In January 2024, Alabama used nitrogen gas for the first time as a new method of execution on Mr Kenneth Eugene Smith. After breathing pure nitrogen gas through a face mask to cause oxygen deprivation, Mr Smith died after about 22 minutes.

The method of execution drew widespread criticism by many, including those who attended the execution saying that what they saw “was minutes of someone struggle for their life.”

Doctors and organisations expressed concern over the method, and Mr Smith’s lawyers had asked the Supreme Court to halt the execution to review claims that it violates the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment. Mr Smith’s lawyers also raised that the method deserved more legal scrutiny before it was used on a person.

The United Nations, also expressed alarm over using an untested method of execution which may subject a person to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. A group of UN experts reported that experimental executions by gas asphyxiation likely violate the prohibition on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading punishment.

Further, the experts provided that punishments that cause severe pain or suffering, beyond harms inherent in lawful sanctions likely violate the Convention against Torture to which the United States is a party. You can read the article published here.

You can read the article and more about Mr Smith’s story here.