UN rights chief deplores US nitrogen gas execution

The new UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk, of Austria, poses in his office at the Palais Wilson, during a photocall for his taking official functions as United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva, Switzerland October 17, 2022. Salvatore Di Nolfi/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo

GENEVA (Reuters) - The United Nations human rights chief on Friday condemned the execution of a prisoner in the U.S. state of Alabama by nitrogen gas, saying the method could amount to torture.

Kenneth Smith, convicted of a 1988 murder-for-hire, was executed on Thursday with nitrogen gas, the first use of a new method of capital punishment since lethal injections began in the U.S. four decades ago.