20 March 2025 :
March 18, 2025 - Arkansas. Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed nitrogen gas legislation
Fifth state to adopt the method.
The measure signed into law by the Republican governor has been promoted by supporters as a way to carry out executions for the first time in eight years. Arkansas currently has 25 people on death row.
Arkansas has not had an execution since 2017, when it put four people to death before a sedative used in its lethal injection protocol expired. The attorney general’s office has said the state has been unable to purchase more lethal injection drugs because of manufacturers’ opposition to their use in executions.
Under the nitrogen hypoxia execution method, an inmate is forced to breathe the gas and deprived of the oxygen needed to stay alive.
Alabama, the first state to use nitrogen gas, has carried out four executions using the method since it began last year. And on Tuesday, Louisiana staged its first, putting to death Jessie Hoffman. Two other states — Mississippi and Oklahoma — have laws allowing the method but have not used it so far.
Arkansas’ law takes effect 90 days after the Legislature adjourns, which will happen in April at the earliest.
