Project Hope to Abolish the Death Penalty and the Execution Intervention Project convened to raise alarms about Alabama’s continued use of nitrogen gas as a method of execution, calling the practice inhumane, experimental and rooted in secrecy.
Esther Brown, executive director of PHADP, opened the discussion by emphasizing the role the prisoner-run organization plays. Founded in 1989 by men incarcerated at Holman Correctional Facility, PHADP is the only prisoner-led abolition group in the country.
“I’m here not for myself, but here for the men. I know they would want me to say how much we appreciate the Reverend for being more than a spiritual adviser, for being a friend… and then he has to witness them being tortured to death. If you can imagine what that’s like,” said Brown.
Brown noted that Alabama has set two nitrogen executions for the coming weeks, and one is currently on a stay. Jeffrey West is scheduled to be executed on September 25 and Anthony Todd Boyd on October 23. David Lee Roberts was scheduled to be executed, but has been put on hold until a court-ordered psychiatric evaluation is completed.
Alabama carried out the first execution by nitrogen hypoxia in U.S. history on January 25, killing Kenneth Smith. Smith had survived a botched lethal injection attempt in 2022. That execution drew national attention after eyewitnesses reported that Smith convulsed, shook and struggled for breath for several minutes before dying.
Rev. Dr. Jeff Hood, a Baptist minister and founder of the Execution Intervention Project, was Smith’s spiritual adviser during that execution. Since then, he has spoken across the country about the realities of nitrogen hypoxia.
“I’ve seen ten executions, nine lethal injections and one nitrogen, and I can tell you I would take a lethal injection any day before I took nitrogen. Nitrogen is unique in its barbarity. It’s not peaceful. It’s not just unpleasant. It’s disgusting,” said Hood.
Hood described the scenes he and others witnessed during Smith’s death.
“We have not seen one of these executions not include seven, eight, nine minutes of heaving back and forth. You’ve seen the skin scrunching up around the mask. You’ve seen the thrusting. You’ve seen the horror,” said Hood
During the press call, Hood demonstrated the actual mask used in Alabama’s nitrogen executions, a full-face respirator manufactured by Allegro Industries. He put the mask on to show how it leaks oxygen, prolonging the death process.
“This device was created to keep someone alive, not to kill them,” said Hood. “When you see someone heaving back and forth, what they’re heaving for is oxygen slipping into the mask. This is a torture device. There’s no question about it.”
Brown urged Alabamians to reconsider the moral cost of executions.
“We have no right to kill, and nothing is more premeditated than executions. Who would Christ execute? Nobody. So please, don’t call yourself a Christian state in Alabama because you’re not,” said Brown.
Alabama has faced national scrutiny over its death penalty practices in recent years. The state has botched several lethal injections, including failed attempts to access veins and prolonged procedures. After those incidents, state officials turned to nitrogen hypoxia, a method authorized by the Legislature in 2018 but never before tested until last year.
State officials have repeatedly described the method as “peaceful” and “painless.” Hood and Brown said that the narrative is contradicted by the lived experience of those present.
“These things are able to take place in small towns and in darkness,” said Hood. “We’ve got to bring them into the light.”
Brown also pointed out that executions cost more than life imprisonment, noting that taxpayers shoulder the legal and procedural costs.
“You’re not saving anything by killing people. If you only knew that, I think you would vote against it,” said Brown.
