How does nitrogen running work and why did the US just apply it for the first time?

This Thursday the 25th, for the first time in the history of USAa prisoner was executed by direct inhalation of nitrogen, a process that has accumulated a long list of criticisms against him due to the agony it would cause in the person receiving it.

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Kenneth Eugene Smith, 51, was sentenced to death in the state of Alabama in 1996 after being found guilty of the murder of Elizabeth Sennett in 1988. Smith committed the crime at the request of the victim’s husband, Charles Sennett, a preacher with serious financial problems that he planned to solve by collecting his wife’s life insurance.

Smith acted in cahoots with John Forrest Parker. Each received a thousand dollars as payment for the execution.

Cornered by the investigations, Sennett committed suicide a week after the murder of his wife. Parker, on the other hand, was executed in an Alabama prison in 2010.

Smith, however, remained on death row until fourteen months ago. In November 2022, the murderer was taken to the “death cell”, as the small room is known to which the condemned are taken a couple of days before their execution.

From there he said goodbye to his mother and his grandson. They served him his last meal and he was taken to the room where he would be given the lethal injection. Four hours later, however, Smith left the room.

The execution failed because the agents’ multiple attempts to find a vein into which to introduce the deadly cocktail were unsuccessful. Consequently, Smith suffered multiple injuries and blows during the procedure, said his lawyers, who took the case to court to demand that his client not be subjected to what they described as authentic torture again.

A federal court described that episode as “horrific,” according to the NGO, and three Supreme Court judges described it as torture, causing him to suffer “enormous pain and suffering” that caused post-traumatic stress disorder.

However, that did not exempt Smith from his fatal fate. Instead, it was decided that the criminal would be executed by direct inhalation of nitrogen, a controversial and still experimental procedure.

– What is death by nitrogen like? –

Nitrogen hypoxia is a procedure in which nitrogen, pure or in a concentration high enough to be lethal, is inhaled to the point of asphyxiation.

For this, the inmate is entered into a room called the “death chamber,” where he will be put on an airtight mask through which nitrogen will be supplied for a maximum of 15 minutes.

Due to the danger that an escape could cause collateral damage, only the condemned will be in the death chamber. Therefore, the presence of a spiritual advisor will only be allowed if they agree to sign a document that releases the state of Alabama from responsibilities.

In Smith’s case, he was accompanied by the Reverend Jeff Hood, who agreed to sign the boundary.

The protocol for execution was finely designed due to the risks inherent to the process. The wall of the room had oxygen meters to verify that they were charged in case of eventualities. The convict was also fitted with a pulse oximeter that showed the level of oxygen saturation in the blood.

Until the last moment, however, Smith’s execution was on hold because his lawyers filed an appeal before the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals and before the Supreme Court asserting that their client was being used experimentally.

The state, meanwhile, defended itself by ensuring that it is “the most painless and humane method of execution known to man” because the sentenced person quickly loses consciousness.

This argument convinced the Supreme Court, but the Court of Appeals failed to rule, so the execution finally materialized.