.ON JANUARY 25TH Kenneth Eugene Smith ended up being the 1st person anywhere to be executed by nitrogen hypoxia. He was pronounced guilty in 1989 of slaughtering Elizabeth Sennett, the partner of a minister from Alabama, on her hubby's orders. The state had very first tried to execute him, through fatal injection, in Nov 2022, but bungled the technique. Afterwards, Mr Smith picked to become put to death by unique ways. His punishment has induced indignation: Alabama claims nitrogen hypoxia is actually a quick, pain-free fatality but lots of health care experts disagree. Some have parallelled it to torture. Why performed Alabama authorize this unproved method?