US man executed with nitrogen gas for 1993 murder

A man was found guilty of murder in the state of Alabama in 1993, and the state administered the execution by using nitrogen gas, a contentious method of execution that some have called “cruel and unusual punishment.”

Anthony Boyd, 54, was put to death in the United States on Thursday evening after killing a man by lighting him on fire in response to a $200 drug debt.

Boyd has continued to defend his innocence in his most recent statements. I “didn’t kill anyone,” he said. He said on Thursday, “I didn’t take part in killing anyone,” according to CBS News. “Justice can’t exist until we change this system,” says the statement.

Since January 2024, Alabama has used nitrogen gas on death row prisoners for the seventh time since Boyd’s death.

According to the US Death Penalty Information Center, the method was chosen over an intravenous lethal injection because of the difficulties with administering it and, more recently, because of the combination of toxic drugs.

The length of an execution can be increased by using nitrogen gas, which is a particular contentious use. Boyd had previously requested that he be executed by firing squad, but his request was rejected. He then made an appeal to several courts.

Additionally, his claim that nitrogen gas violates the US Constitution’s Eighth Amendment, which forbids “cruel and unusual punishments,” was rejected by the US Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court’s three liberal justices, Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson, objected to the court’s majority decision. In her dissention, Sotomayor referred to nitrogen gas as a “torturous suffocation” in contrast to other techniques in her dissention.

She wrote, “Boyd asks for the most lenient form of mercy: to die by a firing squad, which would instantly kill him.” He would be granted that grace by the Constitution. Not even my coworkers. Thus, this Court rejects Boyd and the Eighth Amendment’s protection against cruel and unusual punishment.

The entire process, according to Sarah Clifton, a local reporter who observed Boyd’s execution for the Montgomery Advertiser newspaper on Thursday, lasted almost 40 minutes from the moment he was strapped down until he was declared dead.

At 5:30 p.m. local time, the state ignited nitrogen gas, but Boyd continued to splutter and scream for more than 20 minutes before lying still at 6:30 p.m., according to Clifton. At 6:27 p.m., the state shut off the gas, and Boyd was declared dead at 6:33 p.m.

Boyd had spent 30 years in prison prior to his death. According to the Death Penalty Information Center, he was given the death penalty in 1995 after receiving a 10-to-2 jury verdict in Gregory “New York” Huguley’s murder.