WASHINGTON: The US state of Alabama has executed Kenneth Smith, convicted of murder and sentenced to death, using asphyxiation by nitrogen gas – the first execution by this method in the history of the United States, Alabama Attorney-General Steve Marshall confirmed on Thursday, reported Sputnik.
“Justice has been served. Tonight, Kenneth Smith was put to death for the heinous act he committed over 35 years ago... Tonight also marked the first time in the nation – and the world – that nitrogen hypoxia was used as the method of execution,“ Marshall said.
The execution took place after a failed last-minute attempt by Smith’s attorneys to challenge the measure in the US Supreme Court and despite objections from the United Nations and human rights activists.
Earlier in the day, the US Supreme Court denied a stay of execution for Smith despite Justices Elena Kagan, Ketanji Brown Jackson and Sonia Sotomayor saying they would have paused the execution. Sotomayor dissented from the denial as the method for Smith’s execution was “entirely novel” and “untested”, and Alabama’s protocol “was developed only recently, and is even now under revision”.
Earlier this month, the office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said it was alarmed by the planned execution and urged Alabama authorities to reconsider the action.
Smith has been on death row for more than three decades following his murder conviction in 1988. He was scheduled for execution by lethal injection in 2022, but officials could not initiate the execution before the execution warrant expired.
Earlier this month, a US judge rejected an effort to block Smith’s pending execution. On Wednesday, the US Supreme Court also declined to halt the execution. -Bernama-Sputnik