.ON JANUARY 25TH Kenneth Eugene Smith ended up being the very first individual anywhere to be executed by nitrogen hypoxia. He was pronounced guilty in 1989 of slaughtering Elizabeth Sennett, the spouse of a preacher from Alabama, on her other half’s orders. The state possessed initial attempted to execute him, by deadly treatment, in Nov 2022, but bungled the technique.
After that, Mr Smith opted for to become nailed to a cross through novel ways. His execution has induced outrage: Alabama claims nitrogen hypoxia is actually a quick, pain-free death yet lots of clinical specialists disagree. Some have actually parallelled it to torture.
Why did Alabama authorize this untested procedure?