“I deeply remorse the execution of Kenneth Eugene Smith in Alabama regardless of critical considerations that this novel and untested technique of suffocation could quantity to torture, merciless, inhuman or degrading therapy,” mentioned Volker Türk, the UN Excessive Commissioner for Human Rights, OHCHR.
Convicted of homicide in 1988, Mr. Smith, 58, had been sentenced to loss of life within the state of Alabama. An try to hold out the execution in 2022, failed.
Final week, the Human Rights Council had called for Alabama to halt Mr. Smith’s execution and to chorus from taking steps in the direction of another executions utilizing nitrogen asphyxiation.
On Thursday night, nitrogen hypoxia gasoline was administered to Mr. Smith.
It took 22 minutes earlier than he was formally declared useless, media stories mentioned.
Based on media and different witnesses within the execution chamber, the prisoner shook violently, writhing and convulsing on the gurney.
Previous to the execution, authorities in Alabama reportedly described the usage of pure nitrogen gasoline as “maybe essentially the most humane technique of execution ever devised”.
“The loss of life penalty is inconsistent with the elemental proper to life,” mentioned OHCHR Spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani on Friday morning in a post on X, previously Twitter.
“We urge all States to place in place a moratorium on its use as a step in the direction of common abolition.”
