Does a new U.S. execution method have Canadian link? What’s behind concerns

An Alabama prisoner set to be executed on Thursday using a novel method that a U.S. based advocacy organization says has a Canadian link.

A convicted murderer in Alabama is set to be executed on Thursday using a novel method a U.S.-based advocacy organization says appears to have a Canadian connection.

Worth Rises, a non-profit that is “dedicated to dismantling the prison industry and ending the exploitation of those it touches,” published a statement saying it has established the link in Kenneth Eugene Smith’s execution.

The 58-year-old convicted murderer is set to die by nitrogen hypoxia — an untested method that, if successful, will be the first new method of execution since lethal injection was introduced in 1982.

“Over the past decade, the growing inaccessibility of lethal injection drugs and public outrage over brutally botched executions have moved some states to end or suspend the death penalty. But others, like Alabama, have begun exploring new execution protocols instead, including nitrogen suffocation,” Worth Rises says in a petition on its website.

“It’s appalling on its face, but especially since nitrogen suffocation is outlawed in the state for animal euthanasia. In fact, the United Nations warned that this execution method violates international human rights law.”

Nitrogen hypoxia execution would cause death by forcing the inmate to breathe pure nitrogen, depriving them of the oxygen needed to maintain bodily functions.

Nitrogen, which is a colourless and odourless gas, makes up 78 per cent of the air inhaled by humans and is harmless when breathed with proper levels of oxygen.

The theory behind nitrogen hypoxia is that changing the composition of the air to 100 per cent nitrogen will cause a person to lose consciousness, and then die from lack of oxygen.