.ON JANUARY 25TH Kenneth Eugene Smith became the very first individual anywhere to become put to death through nitrogen hypoxia. He was pronounced guilty in 1989 of slaughtering Elizabeth Sennett, the wife of a minister coming from Alabama, on her other half’s orders. The state possessed first attempted to execute him, by deadly shot, in Nov 2022, but bungled the operation.
Afterwards, Mr Johnson decided on to become nailed to a cross through novel ways. His punishment has induced outrage: Alabama states nitrogen hypoxia is actually a simple, painless death yet several clinical specialists disagree. Some have parallelled it to torture.
Why performed Alabama authorise this unproved procedure?