United Nations experts criticize Alabama’s plan for nitrogen execution

Four experts from the United Nations Wednesday expressed their misgivings with Alabama’s plan to execute a death row inmate with nitrogen gas, saying it would “result in a painful and humiliating death.”

In a statement Wednesday, Morris Tidball-Binz; Alice Jill Edwards; Tlaeng Mofokeng and Margaret Satterthwaite, officials who work on health; executions, punishment and judicial issues, said the method may subject Kenneth Eugene Smith to “cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or even torture.”

The experts said Smith may be exposed to “grave” suffering and there was no scientific evidence to demonstrate otherwise.

Smith, convicted of the 1988 murder-for-hire plot of Elizabeth Sennett, is currently awaiting a ruling on his appeal in the Middle District of Alabama for a preliminary injunction to stop his execution. He was convicted and sentenced to death by a vote of 11-1.

Nitrogen executions have never been used on a human being before. The American Veterinary Medical Association generally discourages its use in euthanizing animals. Other experts have expressed skepticism that the execution method will be humane.

Portions of the protocol that the Alabama Department of Corrections plans to use have been made available through documents as part of Smith’s lawsuit. A gas mask will be placed on Smith with breathable air flowing from the lines to the mask. When the order is given, that line will be shut off, replaced with another line containing pure nitrogen that Smith will breathe.

Pastor Jeff Hood, Smith’s spiritual advisor, has filed a lawsuit challenging the execution, claiming the method will interfere with his duties to minister to Smith at the time of the execution.

Smith is scheduled to be executed on Jan. 25.

Alabama Reflector is part of States Newsroom, an independent nonprofit website covering politics and policy in state capitals around the nation.

This article originally appeared on Montgomery Advertiser: United Nations experts criticize Alabama’s plan for nitrogen execution