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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
Gloria Oladipo and agency

Nitrogen gas execution: how it works and why it’s controversial

Room with white walls, gray doors, and a gurney with straps and wheels.
Alabama's lethal injection chamber at Holman correctional facility in Atmore, Alabama, on 7 October 2002. Photograph: Dave Martin/AP

Alabama has used a new method of execution: nitrogen gas.

Kenneth Smith, who survived the state’s previous attempt to put him to death by lethal injection in 2022, was put to death Thursday by nitrogen hypoxia. It is the first new method of execution since lethal injection was introduced in 1982.

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