Today, United Nations human rights experts called on U.S. authorities not to go ahead with the planned execution of an inmate by nitrogen hypoxia, saying the method may subject him to "cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or even torture".

Kenneth Smith, 58, convicted for a murder-for-hire committed in 1988, is scheduled to be executed in the U.S. state of Alabama on Jan. 25 using the method, which is intended to deprive him of oxygen by using a face mask connected to a cylinder of nitrogen. Smith is one of only two people alive in the U.S. to have survived an execution attempt after Alabama botched his previously scheduled execution by lethal injection in November 2022 when multiple attempts to insert an intravenous line into a vein failed.

Smith's lawyers have said the untested gassing protocol may violate the U.S. Constitution's ban on "cruel and unusual punishments", and have argued a second attempt to execute him by any method is unconstitutional. Most U.S. executions are carried out using lethal doses of a barbiturate, but some states have struggled to obtain the drugs because of a European Union law banning pharmaceutical companies from selling drugs that can be used in executions to prisons.

"This will be the first attempt at nitrogen hypoxia execution," four U.N. Special Rapporteurs said in a statement, saying the method could cause "grave suffering" and likely be at odds with the prohibition on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading punishment. "We are concerned that nitrogen hypoxia would result in a painful and humiliating death." They warned that experimental executions by gas asphyxiation, such as nitrogen hypoxia, will likely violate the prohibition on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading punishment.

They expressed regret about the continuation of executions in the US, which contradict global trends towards the abolition of the death penalty. Botched executions, lack of transparency of execution protocols and the use of untested drugs to execute prisoners in the US have continuously drawn the attention of the UN mechanisms, including special procedures.

The United Nations Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner appealed to Federal and State authorities in the United States and the State of Alabama to halt the execution of Kenneth Smith and any others scheduled to be executed in this manner, pending review of the execution protocol.

We call on our supporters and advocates of a fair and just criminal justice system to review and sign a petition calling on Governors from Alabama, Arizona & Oklahoma (two states where nitrogen hypoxia gas chambers have been refurbished and /or in the process of being updated) to oppose use of the gas chamber and halt all executions, particularly those by suffocation.

Sign the petition here ---->>> Say NO to the Gas Chamber!