The Interim Legal Director of the ACLU of Alabama testified before the Alabama State Legislature’s Joint Prison Oversight Committee this week, advising lawmakers against using nitrogen hypoxia for executions citing examples from Gainesville and elsewhere where workers have died from exposure to the odorless gas.
This is especially important, Alison Mollman said, as the execution of Kenneth Smith via nitrogen hypoxia nears. Smith is scheduled to die next month the 1988 murder-for-hire death of Elizabeth Sennett in Jefferson County, Alabama. That state would be the first in the country to use that chemical in executions.
