Alabama execution carried out

Execution of Kenneth Eugene Smith carried out yesterday despite widespread protests

January 2024

Kenneth Smith was executed yesterday (25 January) in Alabama after serving over 30 years on death row. What brought the execution to world-wide attention was the use of nitrogen hypoxia as the chosen method. Reports seem to show that the execution was prolonged and took over 20 minutes to complete. One report said he ‘thrashed violently’ while dying. This is the first time the gas has been used to execute someone and is as a result of pharmaceutical companies, in America and elsewhere, being reluctant to supply the drugs needed for lethal injection. 

The jury in his trial voted for a life sentence but the judge in the case overruled them. 

This was not the first attempt at executing Smith: there was an attempt in November 2022 by lethal injection but which failed after several unsuccessful efforts to find a vein. Smith suffered considerably during and after that attempt. 

Executions are declining in the USA, the only country in the Americas which still executes its citizens.

Amnesty is opposed to the use of the death penalty in all circumstances.

Sources: BBC; Death Penalty Information Center; Montgomery Advertiser; Birmingham Real-Time News