The office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights said Tuesday it was "alarmed" by the impending execution of a death row inmate in the United States and that the method used could amount to torture. It is a nitrogen inhalation execution system that causes death by hypoxia (lack of oxygen).
"We are alarmed by the imminent execution in the United States of Kenneth Eugene Smith, using a new and unproven method, nitrogen hypoxia," Ravina Shamdasani, the spokeswoman for the High Commissioner, told a news conference in Geneva.
The U.N. has called on Alabama state authorities to stay Smith's execution, scheduled for Jan. 25.
The execution "could amount to torture or other cruel or degrading treatment under international law," he added.
Neither Alabama nor any other state has used this method, which is not even recommended for the euthanasia of dogs and cats.
No sedation
According to Ravina Shamdasani, Alabama's execution protocol for hypoxia nitrogenada does not provide for sedation, while the American Veterinary Association (AVMA) does recommend administering a sedative to animals, even large ones, when they are slaughtered with this method.
The U.N. has called on Alabama state authorities to halt Smith's execution, scheduled for Jan. 25, and is concerned that Mississippi and Oklahoma have also approved this method of execution.
Smith's execution by lethal injection in November 2022 for a 1988 contract killing was canceled at the last minute because the intravenous droppers used to inject the lethal solution could not be delivered to him in the legally prescribed time.
Smith, 58, was one of two men convicted in 1988 of the murder of Elizabeth Sennett, the wife of preacher Charles Sennett, in Colbert County, Alabama.
According to the indictment, Smith and her accomplice John Forrest Parker were each paid $1,000 to kill Sennett on behalf of her husband, who was heavily in debt and wanted to collect insurance. The woman was stabbed and beaten with a fireplace.
The killing shocked the small North Alabama community. The pastor committed suicide a week later. Parker was executed in 2010.
With information from agencies