"Alabama's First Nitrogen Gas Execution: Process, Criticisms, and Controversy"

Alabama executed convicted murderer Kenneth Eugene Smith using nitrogen gas, marking the first use of this method in the US since lethal injection. Critics decry the method as "human experimentation," while the UN rights office urged Alabama to abandon the untested execution method. Smith's execution took about 22 minutes, during which he appeared to remain conscious for several minutes. The US top court rejected Smith's last-ditch request to intervene, and his lawyers had expressed concerns about the method's potential risks. Smith, who was on death row for over three decades, was convicted of the 1988 murder-for-hire of a pastor's wife.