Geneva, Jan 3 (EFE) – United Nations experts at the Human Rights Council on Wednesday “expressed alarm” over the impending execution of a death row inmate in the United States by nitrogen hypoxia (asphyxiation with this gas), an “untested method” that “may subject (the prisoner) to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or even torture.”
The statement was signed by the UN rapporteurs on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, Morris Tidball-Binz; on torture, Alice Jill Edwards; on the right to health, Tlaeng Mofokeng; and on the independence of judges and lawyers, Margaret Satterthwaite, all of whom are part of the so-called Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council.
The experts urged federal and state authorities in the United States and the state of Alabama to halt the execution by nitrogen asphyxiation of Kenneth Smith, scheduled for Jan. 25, and all other prisoners scheduled to die by this method, pending a review of the execution protocol.
Kenneth Smith was convicted of murder for hire in 1988 and sentenced to death by a judge who chose to override the jury’s recommendation of life in prison without parole.
A previous plan to execute him in November 2022 by lethal injection was canceled when prison officials were unable to find a suitable vein.
Despite being included in Alabama’s execution protocol since 2018, execution by nitrogen hypoxia is untested and experts say there is no scientific evidence to prove it does not cause severe suffering.
“We are concerned that nitrogen hypoxia would result in a painful and humiliating death,” the experts said.
They also warned that experimental executions by gas asphyxiation are likely to violate the ban on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading punishment.
If the execution goes ahead, Smith will be forced to breathe only nitrogen, which will deprive his brain and other tissues of oxygen, causing his death.
The UN experts also expressed “regret” at the continuation of executions in the US, which go against global trends toward abolition, saying botched executions, lack of transparency in execution protocols and the use of untested drugs in this country have already drawn UN criticism.
According to Amnesty International, two-thirds of the world’s countries have abolished the death penalty in law or practice, and in 2022 most known executions took place, in that order, in China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the US. EFE
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