The head of Alabama’s prison system said recently that a protocol for using nitrogen gas to carry out executions should be finished this year, reported The Associated Press.
“We’re close. We’re close,” Alabama Commissioner
John Hamm said of the new execution method that the state has been working to
develop for several years.
He said the protocol “should be” finished by the end
of the year. Hamm made the comment in response to a question from The
Associated Press about the status of the new execution method. Once the
protocol is finished, there would be litigation over the untested execution
method before the state attempts to use it.
Nitrogen hypoxia is a proposed execution method in
which death would be caused by forcing the inmate to breathe only nitrogen,
thereby depriving them of the oxygen needed to maintain bodily functions.
Alabama, Oklahoma and Mississippi have authorized the use of nitrogen hypoxia,
but it has never been used to carry out a death sentence.
Alabama lawmakers in 2018 approved legislation that
authorized nitrogen hypoxia as an alternate execution method. Supporters said
the state needed a new method as lethal injection drugs became difficult to
obtain. Lawmakers theorized that death by nitrogen hypoxia could be a simpler
and more humane execution method. But critics have likened the untested method
to human experimentation.
The state has disclosed little information about the
new execution method. The Alabama Department of Corrections told a federal
judge in 2021 that it had completed a “system” to
use nitrogen gas but did not describe it.
Although lethal injection remains the primary method
for carrying out death sentences, the legislation gave inmates a brief window
to select nitrogen as their execution method. A number of inmates selected
nitrogen.
Hamm also said a review of the state’s execution
procedures should be completed, “probably within the next month.”
Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey requested a pause in
executions to review procedures after lethal injections were halted. Ivey cited
concerns for the victims and their families in ordering the review in Alabama.
“For the sake of the victims and their families,
we’ve got to get this right,” Ivey said.
A group of faith leaders last week urged Ivey to authorize an independent review of
execution procedures, as Oklahoma and Tennessee did after a series of failed
lethal injections in those states.
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