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For the first time in the United States, a man was executed using nitrogen. Kenneth Eugene Smith (†58) was sentenced to death in the American state of Alabama for the murder of Elizabeth Sennett (†45). He was scheduled to receive a lethal injection in 2022, but the attempt failed. On Thursday, Sennett’s killer was killed with nitrogen. The case causes a stir.
Why is the US running out of lethal injections?
The most common method of execution in the United States is lethal injection. It is considered a “humane” version compared to the electric chair, which was mainly used in the 1980s. In a lethal injection, a mixture of drugs is injected that causes loss of consciousness, muscle paralysis and cardiac arrest. But there are several problems with this method: on the one hand, it always fails because the prison staff is not trained and cannot find a vein to give the injection. Another problem is pharmaceutical companies refusing to supply American prisons with the drugs they need. Many are based in Europe and oppose the death penalty. That’s why the US needs new methods of execution.
The last gas execution took place in 1999, using hydrogen cyanide, also called hydrogen cyanide or hydrogen cyanide. Last Thursday, guards again resorted to gas and nitrogen after Smith’s lethal injection failed to work. Many adherents believe that people feel nothing when they are executed with nitrogen. But there are also negative voices.
What’s controversial about nitrogen executions?
Nitrogen is not a poisonous gas, but it displaces oxygen in excessive amounts in the body. As a result, the vital organs are no longer supplied with it. “It’s the most humane way to die: You just sit there, and shortly afterwards you’re dead,” said Republican Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian. Unlike toxic gases, you shouldn’t feel like you’re suffocating. But is that true? Smith waited 22 minutes before dying while breathing nitrogen through a gas mask. No one knows what he thought about it.
There are no reference values for this either. Even veterinarians don’t use nitrogen to euthanize animals. The method is said to have caused panic in pigs, suggesting a feeling of suffocation. Opponents of the execution method criticize that there is no information about what the execution feels like. In this way people become test subjects.
How many people are executed in the US?
Since the death penalty was reinstated in the United States in 1976, 1,582 people have been executed. This number has fallen sharply since the 1990s. In 1998, 259 people were sentenced to death, and in 2022 there were 21 more. According to statistics from the US Department of Justice, 56 percent of those sentenced are white, 34 percent black and ten percent belong to other ethnic groups. It is striking that, relative to the population in the US, black people in particular are often sentenced to death. According to the NGO Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC), half of those executed are women.
Which states have the death penalty?
27 of the 50 US states, government and military maintain the death penalty. However, six states currently no longer execute people. This includes California, where 665 people have been sentenced to death and are currently in prison.
Who will be sentenced to death?
The death penalty can be imposed for serious crimes such as murder, treason, terrorism, espionage and genocide. Depending on the state, different penalties apply. The military can also punish desertion during war with death.
Smith was hired by Sennett’s husband through an intermediary to kill the woman. The motive for the husband’s contract killing was financial problems. Smith and another hit man, John Forrest Parker, killed Sennett and made it look like a burglary gone wrong. Parker was executed in 2010. Sennett’s husband committed suicide.
What do people think about the death penalty?
In a 2022 survey, 55 percent of respondents supported the death penalty. For comparison: in 1994 this was 80 percent, according to Spiegel. Criticism is expressed about the high costs of executions and possible wrongful convictions.
Source: Blick
I am Amelia James, a passionate journalist with a deep-rooted interest in current affairs. I have more than five years of experience in the media industry, working both as an author and editor for 24 Instant News. My main focus lies in international news, particularly regional conflicts and political issues around the world.
