Despite international pressure to prevent Alabama became the first place in the United States to use nitrogen gas as a method of execution against a prisonerthe attorney general of that state reported this Thursday night that Kenneth Eugene Smith He was finally pronounced dead.
(Read here: Who is Kenneth Smith, first US prisoner to be executed with nitrogen gas?).
With this announcement, the state of alabama lcarried out the first execution using this method, something that The United Nations equates it with “torture.”
“Justice has been done. “Tonight, Kenneth Smith was executed for the heinous act he committed 35 years ago,” the prosecutor stated. Steve Marshallstating that Alabama “accomplished something historic.”
Its execution is the first of the year in the United Statess, where in 2023 there were 24, all by lethal injection. And it is the first time in more than 40 years that a new execution method has been introduced in the country.
Alabama is one of three states in the country that allow executions by inhalation of nitrogen, in which death occurs due to hypoxia, that is, due to lack of oxygen.
According to leading experts (…) it is an especially cruel and unusual punishment” and recalled his firm opposition to the death penalty “at all times and circumstances.”
For its part, the European Union deplored in a statement the execution of Smith with a method that “according to leading experts (…) is an especially cruel and unusual punishment” and recalled its firm opposition to the death penalty “at all times.” and circumstance.”
While the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk“deeply regretted the execution of Kenneth Eugene Smith in Alabama despite serious concerns that this untested method of nitrogen asphyxiation may constitute torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.”
A previous attempt at lethal injection, on November 17, 2022, was canceled when prison officials were unable to place the intravenous line to administer the drugs within the legally stipulated time, after “having been tied up for several hours,” according to his lawyers.
In this case, Smith appealed to the United States Supreme Court for a stay, but all appeals were rejected.
In 1988 he was convicted of the murder of Elizabeth Dorlene Sennett, 45, ordered by her husband, Charles Sennett, a deeply indebted and unfaithful pastor, to make it look like a robbery gone wrong.
To understand this case in depth, EL TIEMPO talks live this Friday at 11 am with Marta Santos País, from the International Commission against the Death Penalty, about why this method is equated to torture and what the implications of this are. case.
INTERNATIONAL EDITORIAL
TIME
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