OKAuthorizedRisk of next use: Moderate
Oklahoma
The state that invented nitrogen hypoxia as an execution method — and has never used it.
- Status
- Authorized
- Executions
- 0
- Authorized
- 2015
- Statute
- Okla. Stat. tit. 22, § 1014 (HB 1879, 2015)
How Oklahoma got here
After the botched April 2014 execution of Clayton Lockett, Oklahoma became the first jurisdiction anywhere in the world to authorize execution by nitrogen gas. Governor Mary Fallin signed HB 1879 on April 17, 2015. The state spent nearly a decade unable to finalize a protocol or secure equipment, and quietly returned to lethal injection when its drug supply reopened. Oklahoma's statute remains on the books as a backup method — and as the legal template every other authorizing state has followed.
The process, step by step