First Execution by Nitrogen Gas in the USA

The first execution by nitrogen gas is planned to be carried out in the United States. Kenneth Eugene Smith is the inmate scheduled to be executed. He was convicted for the murder of a woman in 1988, ordered by her priest-husband who wanted to obtain insurance money to pay off his debts. Smith is one of the two surviving individuals in the United States who survived a failed attempt at a death sentence. In November 2022, his planned execution through lethal injection in Alabama was botched when attempts to insert a catheter into his vein were unsuccessful. Apart from Alabama, such executions are only allowed in Oklahoma and Mississippi.