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U.S.|Lengthy Execution by Nitrogen Gas in Alabama Renews Concerns Over Method
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/24/us/alabama-nitrogen-execution-anthony-boyd.html
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Anthony Boyd was the eighth person executed by nitrogen gas since Alabama began using the method last year. His execution came over the strenuous objection of three liberal Supreme Court justices.
Oct. 24, 2025, 4:45 p.m. ET
Alabama executed a man using nitrogen gas on Thursday night, causing him to gasp for an extended period of time and spurring more concerns over the execution method, which was used for the first time in the United States last year.
The man, Anthony Boyd, 54, was put to death at a prison in Atmore, Ala., for the 1993 killing of a man who had owed him and others money.
The U.S. Supreme Court had declined to intervene, over the strenuous objection of the court’s three liberal justices. In a dissent issued Thursday, Justice Sonia Sotomayor described nitrogen hypoxia as a “cruel form of execution” that should not be allowed to continue.
Witnesses described seeing Mr. Boyd convulse and heave for about 15 minutes before being pronounced dead about 15 minutes later. He was the eighth person killed by the use of nitrogen gas, which proponents of the method had said they hoped would be more humane than lethal injection, since Alabama first used it in January 2024.
Prison officials there do not disclose exactly when they turn on the gas that flows into a prisoner’s mask, which makes it impossible to know exactly how long the execution takes. The protocol calls for keeping the nitrogen flowing for five minutes after a prisoner’s heart has stopped beating.
“He was sitting there, suffocating, trying to breathe for 19 minutes,” said the Rev. Jeff Hood, a spiritual adviser to Mr. Boyd who was in the execution chamber and has witnessed several other executions, including by nitrogen gas.
