It was the primary time within the historical past of the U.S. that nitrogen gasoline was utilized in an execution and the primary time in additional than 30 years {that a} new execution methodology was launched within the nation.
Within the weeks main as much as the execution, Smith’s attorneys, human rights organizations and consultants had expressed their concern and outrage on the deliberate use of nitrogen gasoline, seen as an untested methodology of execution and probably merciless.
However the U.S. Supreme Court docket ultimately approved the execution to maneuver ahead.
On Friday, the EU sharply criticized the usage of nitrogen gasoline, noting how consultants imagine this methodology is a “significantly merciless and strange punishment.” The 27-member bloc additionally blasted the follow of utilizing the demise penalty, which is presently nonetheless authorized in 27 U.S. states.
“The EU continues to name for the common abolition of the demise penalty,” it stated, including that it’s “involved” in regards to the enhance within the variety of executions within the U.S.
“We name for states that preserve the demise penalty to implement a moratorium and transfer in direction of abolition, in step with the worldwide pattern,” the EU stated.
Alabama had already beforehand tried to execute Smith, a 58-year-old who was convicted for a murder-for-hire in 1988, with deadly injection in 2022, however the execution was known as off after authorities couldn’t join an IV line.