Execution method used on Alabama inmate has pro-euthanasia activists worried

On Thursday, January 25th, an inmate named Kenneth Smith was executed in Alabama using a new execution method: death by nitrogen hypoxia. And a notable euthanasia advocate has condemned it, but only because he claims the execution method is “bad publicity” for the assisted death movement.

Smith had previously undergone an attempted execution in November of 2022, but the attempts at lethal injection failed. Smith’s legal team claimed that attempting to execute him for a second time would equal cruel and unusual punishment, but the day before the execution, the Supreme Court refused to intervene, denying an appeal. Three of the Supreme Court justices dissented, with Justice Sonia Sotomayor writing, “Having failed to kill Smith on its first attempt, Alabama has selected him as its ‘guinea pig’ to test a method of execution never attempted before. The world is watching.”

The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Ravina Shamdasani, wrote ahead of the execution that it should be halted, as using “a novel and untested method” would equal “torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment under international human rights law.”

“It’s not that nitrogen gas won’t kill you,” Dr. Joel Zivot, an associate professor of anesthesiology and surgery at Emory University, told CNN. “But will it kill you in a way that would comport with the constitutional requirement that it not be cruel and it not be torture?”

Now that Smith’s execution has been committed, it appears that his death was, in fact, torturous. Witnesses present for the execution reported a horrific scene: Smith was fitted with a full face mask, and though the nitrogen was said to cause unconsciousness within seconds, Smith remained conscious for several minutes, with the execution overall taking 22 minutes. Smith’s convulsions were reportedly so violent that the entire gurney was shaking, while Smith’s spiritual advisor Rev. Jeff Hood told the Guardian that even the prison officials “were visibly surprised at how bad this thing went.”

Marty Roney, a reporter for the Montgomery Advertiser, wrote:

7:57 p.m.

A prisons staff member inside the death chamber approached Smith and checked the seal of the mask. The nitrogen apparently began flowing.

7:57 to 8:01 p.m.

Smith writhed and convulsed on the gurney. He appeared to be fully conscious when the gas began to flow. He took deep breaths, his body shaking violently with his eyes rolling in the back of his head. Hood, standing about 15 feet away, made the sign of the cross several times. Smith clenched his fists, his legs shook under the tightly tucked-in white sheet that covered him from his neck down. He seemed to be gasping for air. The gurney shook several times during this time. Hood removed his eyeglasses and wiped away tears.

8:02 p.m.

Smith appeared to lose consciousness. His chest remained still for about 20 seconds then he took several large gasps for air. There appeared to be saliva or tears on the inside of the facemask. A female witness for Smith sobbed.

8:06 p.m.

Smith’s gasping appeared to slow down.

8:07 p.m.

Smith appeared to take his last breath.

8:15 p.m.

The curtains to the witness room were closed.

Though the curtains had been closed, Smith had not yet been pronounced dead, which happened ten minutes later.

Another reporter, Lee Hedgepeth, witnessed the execution firsthand, and said he was shocked at how violent it was. “I’ve been to four previous executions and I’ve never seen a condemned inmate thrash in the way that Kenneth Smith reacted to the nitrogen gas,” he told BBC’s Newsday. “Kenny just began to gasp for air repeatedly and the execution took about 25 minutes total.”

Yet Alabama Department of Corrections Commissioner John Q. Hamm downplayed what happened, saying “nothing was out of the ordinary from what we were expecting.” Hamm also tried to claim the violent convulsions were due to Smith struggling against his restraints. The state of Alabama had claimed that death by nitrogen hypoxia would be painless and quick — yet Smith’s execution casts serious doubt on that claim.

And it’s for that exact reason that Philip Nitschke, a notorious euthanasia advocate, is angry.

Nitrogen hypoxia kills a person by depriving their body of the oxygen necessary to live, causing asphyxiation and death; the person is essentially suffocated. It’s an assisted death method frequently championed by Nitschke — which is why he was so adamantly opposed to Smith’s execution; it would show the world firsthand what death by euthanasia is actually like.

In a statement, Nitschke complained that Smith’s execution will set the ‘right to die’ movement back 20 years.

READ: Cancer treatment ‘backlog’ leads Canadian man to request euthanasia… which he got in two days

“Nitrogen hypoxia has been advocated for over 15 years by the right to die movement as an effective way to obtain a quick, peaceful and reliable Do It Yourself (DIY) death,” he said. “Elderly people around the world are now asking whether they should reconsider their plan to use this method and asking where the truth lies. They want to know why the Alabama ‘experiment’ has prompted such negative reaction? What has been missed in the discussion is that there is a huge difference between when a person immerses him/herself in an oxygen-free environment using an open ‘Exit bag’ because they want to die, and the planned closed system of the facemask that Alabama wants to use’. In the Alabama experiment, the condemned prisoner has a mask forcibly strapped to their face and is then expected to cooperate in their own death!”

So for Nitschke, it is only the use of a bag that makes a difference… completely ignoring the fact that the person is still being suffocated until they die, regardless of how the nitrogen hypoxia is carried out. Nevertheless, Nitschke’s statement insists that nitrogen hypoxia is a “highly effective, peaceful and reliable method of elective death.”

Many of the drugs used in assisted suicide and euthanasia are the same as the drugs used in executions, and they are much more violent than they seem; the patient is given a paralytic first, so they cannot respond as they die, giving the appearance of a peaceful death. Yet in actuality, the drugs often cause pulmonary edema, in which the patient essentially drowns in their own bodily fluids. With nitrogen hypoxia, the person is suffocated. Despite the “quick and painless” narrative, these methods of dying are far more gruesome than is let on.

The DOJ put a pro-life grandmother in jail this Christmas for protesting the killing of preborn children. Please take 30-seconds to TELL CONGRESS: STOP THE DOJ FROM TARGETING PRO-LIFE AMERICANS.