Abstract
The modern era of the death penalty in the United States began in 1976 when the Supreme Court reinstituted the death penalty just four years after having found it to be unconstitutional. Since then, various states, as well as the federal government, have experimented with different methods of execution to find the most “humane” way of carrying out an execution. In 2018, Alabama legalized the use of nitrogen hypoxia as a method of execution, and in 2024, became the first state to execute a person with this new, previously untested method. However, the use of nitrogen hypoxia has been the opposite of the quick and painless death that Alabama promised it would be when they legalized the method. This comment discusses the history of the death penalty in the United States, the various methods of execution that have been utilized throughout that history, and the history of the relationship between the Supreme Court and the death penalty. It then presents potential solutions to solving the problem regarding the use of nitrogen hypoxia, arguing that ultimately, the use of such a method violates the Cruel and Unusual Punishments clause of the Eight Amendment of the Constitution.
Last Page
178
First Page
135
Recommended Citation
Emiliano Villarreal,
Tinkering with the Machinery of Death: Execution Through Nitrogen Hypoxia,
28
The Scholar
135
(2025).
Available at:
https://commons.stmarytx.edu/thescholar/vol28/iss1/5
Volume Number
28
Issue Number
1
Publisher
St. Mary's University School of Law
Editor
Priscilla Okolie
ISSN
1537-405X
