Alabama savagely gas-tortured a fifth man to death

When things fall apart in society it’s not always easy to identify the breaking points—what decisions were made, what conduct was tolerated—that allowed mankind to descend so far.

“Alabama’s gruesome and gasping nitrogen-gassings”—such as the fifth time the state used nitrogen-gassing during the June 10 execution of Gregory Hunt—are a glaring exception to this.

Montgomery Advertiser reporter Alex Gladden wrote the following about Hunt’s execution: At 5:52 p.m., “The curtains to the death chamber were opened. Hunt was wrapped in a white sheet and strapped to a gurney. A mask was affixed to his face.” After Hunt declined to give any last words and the gas began to flow—at 5:56 p.m.—“Hunt began taking deep breaths.” At 5:57 p.m., Hunt “began gasping and lifted his head. His entire body began convulsing.” At 5:59 p.m., “Hunt turned his head and then lifted his head. Hunt’s head fell back, and he groaned loudly.” At 6 p.m., “Hunt moved his head and gasped. He continued intermittently gasping for the next several minutes.” At 6:04 p.m., Gladden concluded that “Hunt appeared to take his last breath.”

Gladden’s narration and timekeeping shows Hunt was gasping for breath for between 7 to 8 minutes. This cannot be explained by terms state officials bandy about like “agonal breathing.” Hunt’s gasping for minutes on end and his loud groan were palpably not unconscious, insensate reactions to nitrogen gas.

Recall as Corinna Barrett Lain, a professor at the University of Richmond School of Law, writes in her acclaimed book “Secrets of the Killing State” (New York University Press 2025): “In litigation clearing the way for Alabama to use nitrogen gas, the state repeatedly stated that its new execution protocol would work within seconds. ‘The state’s method will rapidly lower the oxygen level in the mask, ensuring unconsciousness in seconds,’ the attorney general had promised. This was the basis for Alabama’s claim that execution by nitrogen gas was ‘the most painless and humane method of execution known to man.’ In legal filings, the state had claimed: ‘In all likelihood, hypoxia will cause unconsciousness in a matter of seconds, rendering [the prisoner] unable to feel pain.’”

In situations such as Hunt’s where “Alabama arrogantly asphyxiates another condemned man,” or the only time a state other than Alabama used nitrogen in an execution, when “Alabama export[ed] [its] nitrogen-gassing abomination to Louisiana,” it should be easy to agree with my position in USA Today: “Gassing humans to death is wrong”—and nothing can make it right.

It’s depressing and wearisome to catalogue atrocity after atrocity in Alabama via nitrogen-gas, and lethal injection; Professor Lain writes: “Nitrogen gas is its own train wreck, but let’s not forget the reason for Alabama’s latest move: the problems with lethal injection.” It’s especially depressing knowing there will always be some who insist atrocities committed by men, much less frequently women, justify the state to act in a murderously retributive—“an eye for an eye”—kind of way.

Still, about these gassings in Alabama, I’ve urged the “torture outrage [has been] muted and unconscionably insufficient.” Because I do insist it is indeed an easily identifiable breaking point in our society when we can tolerate the state-sanctioned asphyxiation and suffocation of a human being—notwithstanding whatever terrible (monstrous even!) crimes that human being has committed.

We don’t need the Supreme Court to say gassing is “cruel and unusual punishment”—though history will not forgive or forget their failure to clearly do so. We must ourselves extirpate this abomination, as Alabamians and Americans, if we want to retain any sense of moral standing.

“Jews must speak out against Alabama’s planned nitrogen executions” because of our history. And, as Gladden reported along with her observations about Hunt’s last minutes being suffocated: “Across the globe, organizations, including the Vatican, have protested the use of nitrogen hypoxia in execution, calling it cruel and unusual punishment.” Still: it’s not enough.