Alabama plans first nitrogen gas execution this week in process raising concerns of cruelty

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

47% : Death by nitrogen gasThe origins of nitrogen hypoxia as an execution method trace in most sources to a 1995 article in National Review, though it's gained increasing traction in recent years as states struggle to implement lethal injection, according to Deborah Denno, a professor at Fordham Law School who has studied the death penalty for decades.
47% : Since its inception 40 years ago, lethal injection has become by far the most prominent method of execution for the US government and the 27 states that still have the death penalty.
44% : Oklahoma was first to adopt nitrogen gas as an execution method in 2015 as a backup if lethal injection were ever found unconstitutional or "otherwise unavailable."
41% : "After a couple breaths," Allbaugh said at the time, "the individual loses consciousness, doesn't feel anything."Alabama adopted nitrogen hypoxia that same year, with the state lawmaker who sponsored the legislation telling AL.com he believed it would be more humane than lethal injection.UN experts call on Alabama to halt executionMany others, including Zivot, however, remain skeptical of nitrogen hypoxia, with the anesthesiologist pointing to several potential complications, including the risk that the nitrogen causes Smith to have a seizure, which could make him vomit into the mask and then choke.Zivot also raised the possibility of an ineffective seal on the mask, allowing nitrogen to leak out, prolonging the execution or leaving Smith severely injured.
38% : "But will it kill you in a way that would comport with the Constitutional requirement that it not be cruel and it not be torture?"Alabama is one of just three states, along with Oklahoma and Mississippi, that have approved use of nitrogen gas to carry out death sentences.
35% : Alabama intends to carry out the first known execution by nitrogen gas this week, when it's scheduled to put to death Kenneth Smith some 14 months after failing to carry out his capital punishment by lethal injection.
35% : "Amid the uncertainty, Smith and his lawyers - along with experts from the United States to the United Nations - have questioned whether potential complications from the nitrogen gas procedure could lead to excessive pain or even torture for the inmate who previously asked to be put to death in this way.
35% : Smith had expressed a desire to be executed by nitrogen hypoxia before Alabama tried to put him to death in November 2022 using lethal injection.
35% : But beginning around 2009, states began losing access to the drugs long used to carry it out, leading to use of alternative drugs that have led to a "surge in problems with lethal injection," Denno told CNN.
35% : "Those concerns are shared by parties far beyond Alabama: Earlier this month, United Nations experts "expressed alarm" over Smith's looming execution, saying in a news release, "We are concerned that nitrogen hypoxia would result in a painful and humiliating death.

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