The US Supreme Court ruled Thursday that Alabama can proceed with using nitrogen gas to put a man to death, refusing to block what would be the nation’s first execution by a new method since 1982. The state says the method will be humane, but critics call it cruel and experimental. The decision clears the way for the state to carry out the execution of Kenneth Eugene Smith — a 58-year-old convicted killer whose 2022 lethal injection was called off at the last minute because authorities couldn’t connect an IV line — this time by using nitrogen gas. Smith’s attorneys had waged an unsuccessful legal battle to halt the execution, arguing that Alabama was trying to make him the test subject for an experimental execution method. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who along with two other liberal justices dissented, wrote: ”Having failed to kill Smith on its first attempt, Alabama has selected him as its ‘guinea pig’ to test a method of execution never attempted before. The world is watching.” Smith is scheduled to be executed at a south Alabama prison. Officials intend to put a respirator mask over his face and replace the air he is breathing with pure nitrogen gas, causing him to die from lack of oxygen. It will be the first use of a new execution method since the introduction four decades ago of lethal injection, now the most commonly used one in the United States.
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