After a failed attempt at executing Kenneth Smith by lethal injection in November 2022, Alabama chose to use an untested method of capital punishment known as nitrogen hypoxia to attempt to execute him again. 

Nitrogen hypoxia is an execution method that involves fitting prisoners with a mask and breathing tube and being put to death as nitrogen gas is pushed through the mask, slowly depriving them of oxygen, according to deathpenaltyinfo.org.

According to a different article on the same site, during Smith’s first execution attempt, he was strapped to a gurney for four hours while the execution team failed at correctly setting up the IV that was intended to kill him.

Even after the suffering he faced during this first attempt, the courts scheduled him to be put to death over a year later, and he would be the first case of a nitrogen hypoxia execution. 

The execution took about 22 minutes, with Smith remaining conscious for at least a few minutes, convulsing for at least two minutes and finally several minutes of heavy breathing before his breathing ceased, anAP News article explains.

Between being strapped down, not knowing whether you’ll be dead soon, and possibly suffering while your air becomes unbreathable and your body begins convulsing, Smith’s executions were unethical. 

In September 2024, the second usage of nitrogen hypoxia was also in Alabama. This case mirrors the first in many aspects. Alan Miller, similarly to Smith, survived a lethal injection execution attempt in 2022 when the execution team failed to insert his IV.

Miller’s second execution took place in September 2024. According to an AP News article, Miller shook on the gurney for around two minutes, which was about as long as Smith convulsed. The article also states that Miller took “gulping breaths” for six minutes until he went completely still.

With only two cases of execution using nitrogen hypoxia, and both resulting in convulsions and suffocation, which is much more tortuous than the lethal injection, it seems this method presented as ethical may not have been tested or researched enough. 

Ever since the Alabama legislature authorized the use of nitrogen hypoxia as an execution method, there have been many criticisms. Some of those critics include the leading producers of nitrogen gas in the U.S., including Airgas, Air Products and Matheson, according to an article ondeathpenaltyinfo.org.

Other criticisms about this method of execution involve information from the American Veterinary Medical Association’s guidelines for the euthanasia of animals. In these guidelines, the use of nitrogen and argon gasses for euthanasia is discussed and heavily discouraged because “these gases tend to cause more convulsive wing flapping in poultry than CO2 in air mixtures.”

The AVMA guidelines also state that if euthanasia with these gases occurs, they provide a sedative first; however, this is not seen in the case of human execution using this method thus far.

The United Nations has called the method into question. Ravina Shamdasani, a spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, expressed concern about the use of a technique that is untested because they believe it could be considered torture.

Shamdasani writes about the organization’s concern that Smith’s execution may breach the banning of torture and his right to “effective remedies.”

“These are rights set out in two International Human Rights treaties the United States is bound by – the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment,” she said.

With all of these groups questioning the ethicality of using nitrogen hypoxia for capital punishment, it seems there needs to be more research and testing done before this method of execution becomes common. 

As of now, Alabama, Mississippi, Oklahoma and Louisiana have authorized nitrogen hypoxia as a method of execution, while Arizona, California, Missouri and Wyoming have authorized lethal gas executions without specifying a type of gas, according to deathpenaltyinfo.org.

I find this scary because the only executions conducted have been brutal and borderline torture, and this method needs more testing before any more states begin to authorize its usage. 

Kate Beske is a 21-year-old journalism major from Destrehan, LA.