Witness describes execution as "minutes of horror"
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
Reverend Jeff Hood of Little Rock. Screenshot courtesy Death Penalty Action.
A bill that would allow Arkansas to execute prisoners using nitrogen gas will be reviewed by the state House Judiciary Committee Thursday.
Yes, but: The method is described as cruel and horrific by Little Rock Reverend Jeff Hood, who witnessed the first U.S. nitrogen hypoxia execution of Kenneth Smith in Alabama last February.
Context: Hood, who served as spiritual adviser to Smith, described in graphic detail his first-hand account on a Zoom call Wednesday organized by advocacy group Death Penalty Action.
- He said it was essentially suffocation.
By the numbers: Roughly 20 death row inmates are executed in the U.S. each year back to 2016.
- The average was much higher in the early 2000s, with the peak being 98 in 2000.
The big picture: A shortage of the drugs commonly used in lethal injections has slowed the rate of U.S. executions in recent years, according to The Marshall Project.
- At least one company that made pentobarbital said in 2024 it would no longer produce it.
- Nitrogen hypoxia could be an alternative for states that can't access the right combination of drugs.
What they're saying: "I think we got a lot of people in Arkansas that say a whole lot about God. They say a whole lot about Jesus. They say a whole lot about religion," Hood said.
- "But you can't say such things and then be about suffocating people at the same time."
The other side: State Rep. Jeffrey Wardlaw (R-Hermitage) is lead sponsor of the bill.
- He didn't immediately respond to a request for information from Axios.
The bottom line: The bill adds language, though, that makes it clear lawmakers are intent on carrying out executions as lethal injection becomes less feasible: "The death sentence shall remain in force until the sentence can be lawfully executed by a valid method of execution."