Alabama
The only state to actually use nitrogen at scale — and the only state permanently enjoined from using it again.
- Status
- Used
- Executions
- 7
- Authorized
- 2018
- Statute
- Ala. Code § 15-18-82.1 (SB 272, 2018)
How Alabama got here
Governor Kay Ivey signed SB 272 in March 2018, giving Alabama death-row prisoners a narrow window to elect nitrogen hypoxia. No protocol existed yet. The Alabama Department of Corrections did not publish one until August 2023 — heavily redacted. Between January 2024 and October 2025, Alabama carried out seven nitrogen executions (Smith, Miller, Grayson, Frazier, Hunt, West, Boyd), more than any other jurisdiction on Earth. In June 2026, after the Lee bench trial, a federal court entered a permanent injunction — the first ever against a method of execution in American history. Alabama abandoned the method it invented.
The process, step by step