Anti-Death Penalty Advocates Urge U.N. Probe Into Alabama's Nitrogen Gas Execution

Anti-death penalty advocates sent letters to the United Nations and the International Criminal Court last week, calling for an investigation into Alabama’s execution of Kenneth Smith by asphyxiation from nitrogen gas.

The letters were penned by Smith’s spiritual adviser, Jeff Hood, along with Project Hope to Abolish the Death Penalty, a group run by people on death row. They claim that the nitrogen execution, the first of its kind in the U.S., was an “act of torture” and that Alabama violated international human rights laws.

Smith, 58, was pronounced dead on Jan. 25 at 8:25 p.m. local time. According to the Associated Press, he “appeared to shake and writhe on the gurney″ as he died, ”sometimes pulling on the restraints” for at least two minutes, followed by several minutes of heavy breathing.” Hood and others who witnessed the execution recounted similar details in their letters.

The letters pointed out that the state officials responsible for authorizing this method of execution need to be held accountable, but so do the individuals who carried out the actions. The letters name four staffers of the state’s correctional department and facility who carried out the execution and call for them to be prosecuted.

“I think that it begins with the four folks in that room. But it goes beyond that. It goes so much further beyond that,” Hood told HuffPost.

“I don’t see these four people as any different than any other bad actors in history. They are perpetuating injustice, they’re perpetuating murder, and they are perpetuating crimes against humanity,” he continued.

In 2018, Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey ® signed a law authorizing nitrogen executions following a shortage of lethal injection drugs, and as a lawsuit filed by death row