Alabama will be allowed to put an inmate to death with nitrogen gas later this month according to Wednesday’s ruling by a federal judge.
The ruling would be the nation’s first execution using a new method the inmate’s lawyers criticize as cruel and experimental.
U.S. District Judge R. Austin Huffaker rejected inmate Kenneth Eugene Smith’s request for a preliminary injunction to stop his scheduled Jan. 25 execution by nitrogen hypoxia.
Smith’s attorneys have said Alabama is trying to make Smith the “test subject”.
Huffaker acknowledges execution by nitrogen hypoxia is a new method but noted that lethal injection — now the most common execution method in the country — once was also new.
Three states — Alabama, Mississippi and Oklahoma — have authorized nitrogen hypoxia as an execution method, but none has used it so far.
