A convicted murderer was executed using nitrogen gas in the southern US state of Alabama on Thursday, the first time the country has used a method that the UN rights chief said could amount to torture. Is.
Kenneth Eugene Smith was pronounced dead at 8:25 p.m. (0225 GMT Friday), according to the state attorney general.
“Justice has been served. Tonight, Kenneth Smith was put to death for the heinous crimes he committed 35 years ago,” the statement from Attorney General Steve Marshall said.
Smith, 58, had been on death row for more than three decades after being convicted of murdering a pastor’s wife in 1988.
He was executed at Holman Prison in Atmore, Alabama, by nitrogen hypoxia, which involved pumping nitrogen gas into a facemask, causing him to suffocate.
According to media witnesses, he “wandered for about two to four minutes and then began breathing heavily for about five minutes,” local news outlet AL.com reported.
Alabama Department of Corrections Commissioner John Hamm told reporters that Smith was “holding his breath as long as possible” and making “involuntary movements” and gasping.