.ON JANUARY 25TH Kenneth Eugene Smith became the first person anywhere to become executed by nitrogen hypoxia. He was actually pronounced guilty in 1989 of slaughtering Elizabeth Sennett, the other half of a minister from Alabama, on her hubby's orders. The state possessed first attempted to execute him, by lethal injection, in November 2022, however messed up the operation. After that, Mr Johnson chose to become killed by novel methods. His execution has led to shock: Alabama declares nitrogen hypoxia is actually an easy, painless fatality but numerous clinical specialists differ. Some have parallelled it to torture. Why carried out Alabama authorize this untested procedure?