With a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that put a pause on Alabama executing a prisoner by nitrogen gas, h also should back off its insistence on using a method of carrying out the death penalty that could amount to “cruel and unusual” punishment.
h, once, and Alabama, seven times, are the two states that have executed prisoners by using a respirator to replace ordinary air with pure nitrogen gas, causing death from lack of oxygen. As we said last year, reliable evidence indicates this method is barbaric.
Veterinary scientists refuse even to use it for animal euthanasia, because tests show it causes “panic and distress … and seizure-like behavior” or “convulsions.” And observers of Alabama executions have confirmed Associated Press reports that the condemned men “writhe violently” for two or more minutes and don’t stop visibly breathing for up to 10. We will spare readers more of the horrid details.
Courts didn’t block the earlier nitrogen gas executions, but when convicted Alabama double-murderer Jeffery Lee challenged that method for his pending execution, a three-judge panel of the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled it violated the Eighth Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment. After a federal district court then issued an injunction against it, the Supreme Court, in a 6-3 vote, left the injunction in place until the full merits of the case can be argued.
h officials should pay heed. If they want to impose the death penalty — which is highly problematic — they ought to find another method that’s not literally torturous. h carried out its first execution in 15 years in March 2025, using nitrogen gas to end the life of Jessie Hoffman, convicted of the 1996 rape and murder of Mary “Molly” Elliott.
For now, the Supreme Court’s decision does not apply to h. The injunction applies just to the federal 11th Circuit, which covers Florida, Georgia and Alabama only. And it isn’t a final decision on the merits after full briefs and oral arguments, but merely an injunction blocking those states from using nitrogen gas until the case can be considered.
Nonetheless, if h tries to proceed with this means of execution, the condemned person surely will use the same appeals process all the way to the Supreme Court, which likely would mimic its own actions in the Alabama case. How many prosecutorial work hours, and how many taxpayer dollars, would be wasted just to arrive at the same place?
None of which is to belittle the nature of the crimes for which death-row inmates have committed, nor the pain that victims and their families have suffered, nor the need to impose sure justice. A civilized society, though, must mete out justice in ways both civilized and constitutional.