In the news

Alabama’s third nitrogen gas execution ‘conscious suffocation’ say lawyers

Alabama has put to death Carey Dale Grayson in its third nitrogen gas execution, a method which has sparked international condemnation. Grayson’s lawyers described the sensation as “conscious suffocation.”

Vets in the US and Europe have said that nitrogen gas is unacceptable as a form of euthanasia for most mammals.

Speaking to The Guardian here and here, Reprieve US Deputy Director Matt Wells said: “The only lesson from this grim sequence of events is that when states use human beings as guinea pigs for lethal experiments, they are bound to suffer, whether at the point of a needle or behind a mask.”