Highlights: The United States used nitrogen asphyxiation to execute a prisoner for the first time. Kenneth Smith was convicted of a murder in 1988 and was originally scheduled to be executed by intravenous injection in November 2022. His attorneys raised objections to the use of nitrogen, claiming the method was untested and would be unconstitutional. The U.N. experts warned that using nitrogen to carry out executions may constitute torture, and stated in a press release, “We are concerned that nitrogen asphxiation will lead to painful and humiliating deaths”
China News Service, January 26 (Xinhua) According to comprehensive foreign media reports, on the evening of the 25th local time, the US state of Alabama used nitrogen asphyxiation to execute a prisoner, becoming the first state in the country to use nitrogen to execute a death row prisoner.
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