U.S. Supreme Court Allows Alabama to Execute Inmate Using Nitrogen Gas Despite Dissent

The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday allowed the state of Alabama to proceed with the execution of death row inmate Anthony Boyd using nitrogen gas, rejecting his appeal to die by firing squad. The court’s three liberal justices — Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson — issued a passionate dissent, warning that the novel method amounts to “cruel and unusual punishment” in violation of the Eighth Amendment. “Imagine suffocating for four minutes,” Sotomayor wrote, calling the process “psychological torment” as the condemned person’s body continues to struggle for breath.

Boyd, 54, was convicted in the 1993 killing of Gregory Huguley over a $200 cocaine debt, a crime for which he maintained his innocence until his death. According to prison officials, he was pronounced dead at 6:33 p.m. (2333 GMT) after nitrogen gas was administered, becoming the latest inmate executed under Alabama’s new method. Local reports said Boyd smiled and gave a thumbs up before his execution, insisting, “I didn’t kill anybody.” Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall said Boyd’s appeals were “endless attempts to delay justice,” adding that the victim “was never afforded the chance to delay his own brutal death.”

This was Alabama’s second nitrogen gas execution following the controversial January 2024 death of Kenneth Smith, whose prolonged convulsions raised concerns over the method’s humaneness. Justice Sotomayor noted that others executed by nitrogen asphyxiation in Alabama and Louisiana had suffered similar distress, accusing lower courts of being “blind to the reality” of the suffering involved. Despite growing scrutiny, the Supreme Court’s conservative majority offered no explanation for denying Boyd’s final appeal.

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