February 16, 2025
Arkansas introduces bill to allow nitrogen gas executions
February 14, 2025 by Josh Snyder
A bill filed in Arkansas on Friday that would allow nitrogen gas to be used in state executions has state Attorney General Tim Griffin’s approval, although the United Nations has warned the method “may amount to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.”
House Bill 1489, sponsored by Rep. Jeff Wardlaw, R-Hermitage, and Sen. Blake Johnson, R-Corning, also states a death sentence “shall not be reduced” if a method of execution is declared unconstitutional.
If it passes, Arkansas will join at least four other states that already allow the use of nitrogen gas in executions: Alabama, Mississippi, Oklahoma and Louisiana.
A lawmaker in Nebraska filed a bill last month seeking to require his state to establish a process for nitrogen hypoxia as a possible execution method.
Johnson said passage of the bill would allow the state to resume executing death row inmates. There are currently 25 inmates on death row, according to the Arkansas Department of Corrections.
In 2017, Arkansas executed four men over the course of two weeks to beat a drug expiration date.
Since then, all executions in Arkansas have been on hold. At the time, companies that supplied the drugs used in the executions stepped forward publicly to accuse state officials in court of skirting company policies to procure the drugs.
Those companies said they would not have sold their products to the state if they had known their intended use.
“It’s made it harder to carry out those sentences through those means,” Johnson said.
The five-page bill, which lists more than 60 co-sponsors, states, “The Division of Correction shall carry out the sentence of death either by intravenous lethal injection of the drug or drugs described in subsection (d) of this section in an amount sufficient to cause death or by nitrogen gas.”
The drugs listed in subsection (d) include barbiturates and “Midazolam, followed by vecuronium bromide, followed by potassium chloride.”
The bill also states, “Upon receipt of a warrant of execution from the Governor, the Director of the Division of Correction shall provide written notice within seven (7) days to the condemned prisoner of the method of execution.
If lethal injection is selected as the method of execution, the written notice shall include the name or names of the drug or drugs to be used in the execution.”
HB1489 adds language stating, “A sentence of death shall not be reduced as a result of a method of execution being declared unconstitutional.
“The death sentence shall remain in force until the sentence can be lawfully executed by a valid method of execution,” the bill states.
HB1489 describes the method of death it would allow as a “nitrogen-hypoxia execution.” Hypoxia occurs when the tissues of one’s body don’t have enough oxygen, according to the Cleveland Clinic.
According to Johnson, Arkansas lawmakers have been considering the use of nitrogen gas in executions for “at least six years.”
“With the other means in question I think this one is another very good way to get those sentences carried out,” Johnson said.
Previously, the state had used a three-drug protocol for executions: midazolam to sedate, vecuronium bromide as a paralytic and potassium chloride to stop the heart.
Wardlaw said that he believed natural gas would be more readily available for use in executions than the three-drug cocktail that has historically been used.
“I just think it’s important that we’re able to carry out sentences that are put forth by juries and judges,” he said. “And it’s our jobs as policymakers to make sure that statute aligns with those sentencings.”
The attorney general’s office helped with the development of HB1489, according to Wardlaw.
In a statement expressing support for the bill, Griffin said the state has “failed to keep our promises to the friends and family of victims to execute those sentenced to death under our laws.
“That ends now,” he continued. “We will give the state the tools needed to carry out these sentences and deliver justice. I strongly support the bill and applaud Representative Wardlaw and Senator Blake Johnson for introducing it.”
Wardlaw said that he believed that the nitrogen gas method would result in a “quick, humane death,” a sentiment echoed by his partner on the bill.
“Normally, it would be a situation where it’s just like falling asleep,” Johnson said.
The execution of inmates by nitrogen gas has received strong condemnation by certain groups, including experts from the U.N. Human Rights Council. In a November news release prior to the execution of Carey Grayson in Alabama by nitrogen gas, the group said it believed the method “may amount to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, or even torture.”
The council said “execution by nitrogen asphyxiation” is “clearly prohibited under international law,” and that they appealed to federal and state authorities in the United States and Alabama to halt the execution.
However, they did not receive a response and Grayson was executed Nov. 21. Grayson’s death marked Alabama’s third execution using the method in 2024, according to NBC News.
When Alabama carried out the nation’s first execution using nitrogen gas on Jan. 25, The New York Times reported that the inmate, Kenneth Smith, “shook and writhed” for at least two minutes during the execution.
When asked about the U.N.’s criticism of the use of nitrogen gas in Alabama, Griffin said in a separate statement, “This bill gives the state an additional option. The UN has numerous terrorist states as members and is out of step with the United States on many issues.”
Last March, The Guardian reported that three of the largest nitrogen gas manufacturers in the U.S. said they would not allow their products to be used in executions.
However, Johnson said that, unlike the drugs needed for Arkansas’ current method of execution, the state wouldn’t have any problem finding a source for the gas.
“I wish we didn’t have to do it at all,” he said. “But that’s the sentences that have been put down, and I think we have to help finalize those sentences.”