Alabama carries out first US execution by asphyxiation with nitrogen gas
Al Jazeera
Convicted murderer Kenneth Smith, who survived an earlier execution attempt by lethal injection, was killed on Thursday night.
Kenneth Smith, a convicted murderer, has become the first person to be executed by asphyxiation with nitrogen gas in the United States.
Officials said 58-year-old Smith was pronounced dead at 8:25pm on Thursday (02:25 GMT on Friday) at Holman Correctional Facility in Alabama after breathing pure nitrogen gas through a face mask to cause oxygen deprivation.
His death marks the first time that a new execution method has been used in the United States since lethal injection, now the most commonly used method, was introduced in 1982.
Alabama has called its new protocol “the most painless and humane method of execution known to man”.
The last US execution using gas was in 1999 when a convicted murderer was put to death using hydrogen cyanide gas.
