By Emily Woodruff
The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate
NEW ORLEANS —Gov. Jeff Landry signed into law Tuesday new methods of execution that can be used in Louisiana for the state’s nearly 60 death row prisoners starting July 1.
Electrocution is back in rotation after a 33-year ban. Lethal injection with a cocktail of drugs remains legal, but drug shortages have put such executions on pause for the last 14 years.
A third method, nitrogen hypoxia, was also added, along with protections for anyone who participates in executions. While the other two methods have a history of protocols suggesting how the state might go about carrying out the death penalty, nitrogen hypoxia has only been used once for capital punishment in the United States. Many questions about what a nitrogen gas death entails are unanswered.
“Simply saying nitrogen gas is going to be used is just the beginning of the inquiry, not the end of it,” said Robin Maher, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center.
Although four other states — Alabama, Mississippi, Oklahoma and Missouri — allow for the gas to be used in executions, Alabama is the only state that has carried out a nitrogen gas death. Kenneth Smith, an Alabama man convicted in a 1988 murder-for-hire stabbing death, was executed in January, and serves as the lone example for what Louisiana’s policy might look like in action.
What is nitrogen hypoxia?
Hypoxia is the deprivation of oxygen. Nitrogen is a colorless, odorless gas that makes up about 78% of the air we breathe. In a nitrogen gas execution, oxygen is replaced with pure nitrogen. Without oxygen, the body’s cells and organs are unable to function and will start to shut down.
Nitrogen hypoxia is not a medical term, said Dr. Joel Zivot , an associate professor of anesthesiology at Emory School of Medicine and an expert on physician participation in lethal injection.
“It’s asphyxiation,” said Zivot. “It’s the gas chamber strapped to your face.”
The state has not released a protocol for how the gas will be delivered. The Louisiana Department of Corrections referred questions about the method to Gov. Jeff Landry’s office.
Alabama’s protocol calls for a “full facepiece supplied air respirator” for the inmate, who would be strapped to a gurney while nitrogen is fed through a breathing tube. The gas is to be administered for at least 15 minutes or “five minutes following a flatline indication on the EKG, whichever is longer.”
Another option would be to create an airtight gas chamber. Because nitrogen is colorless and odorless, leaks from a chamber or air mask would be dangerous to others nearby, said Zivot. Leaks could also prolong the execution, or lead to injury rather than death.
What does research say about nitrogen gas?
There is little medical research on death by nitrogen gas. Most of what is known is from deaths by accidental exposure or suicide. Smith is the only example of an execution.
The Alabama attorney general’s office told federal appeals court judges before the execution that nitrogen hypoxia is “the most painless and humane method of execution known to man.”
The state of Alabama predicted that nitrogen gas would “cause unconsciousness within seconds and cause death within minutes” in federal court filings.
But by many accounts, that is not what happened in Smith’s execution.
Witnesses said Smith writhed for several minutes, causing the gurney to move up and down. Gradually, the writhing stopped and Smith gasped for air. The time of death was called about 22 minutes after the process began.
Those minutes were likely extremely uncomfortable, said Zivot, as chemical receptors in the body detected a lack of oxygen and sent warnings to the brain.”
“It’s the body’s number one alarm to tell you to seek a different environment, to avoid what you’re doing so you don’t die,” Zivot said.
In 2020, the American Veterinary Medical Association released euthanasia guidelines that said nitrogen hypoxia is not acceptable as a euthanasia method for most mammals because the lack of oxygen in the environment “is distressing.”
Why is nitrogen hypoxia an option now?
After electrocution was banned in 1991, the state’s only method of execution was lethal injection. But drug shortages made those difficult to carry out. Many pharmaceutical companies object to their products being used to cause death.
Injections also may require the expertise of a medical professional. The American Medical Association deems it unethical for physicians to participate in capital punishment.
As a result, many lethal injections have been botched or delayed because the team tasked with carrying them out cannot inject them properly.
In the Alabama case, nitrogen gas was used after a failed execution in Nov. 2022 when the execution team was unable to locate a vein.
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