Fri Oct 24 05:15:39 UTC 2025: ## Alabama Executes Man with Nitrogen Gas, Sparking Controversy
Montgomery, AL – The state of Alabama executed Anthony Boyd, 54, on Thursday evening using nitrogen gas, a method of execution that has drawn sharp criticism for its potential to inflict cruel and unusual punishment. Boyd was convicted in 1995 for the 1993 murder of Gregory “New York” Huguley, who was set on fire over a $200 drug debt.
Boyd maintained his innocence until his final moments, stating, “I didn’t kill anybody. I didn’t participate in killing anybody. There can be no justice until we change this system.”
The execution is the seventh time Alabama has used nitrogen gas since January 2024, opting for this method due to difficulties with intravenous lethal injection administration and drug procurement.
The use of nitrogen gas has been particularly controversial due to concerns it can prolong the execution process. Reports from witnesses like Sarah Clifton of the Montgomery Advertiser, who observed the execution, indicate a protracted procedure. According to Clifton, Boyd continued to breathe and spasm for over 20 minutes after the gas was administered at 5:57 pm local time before finally lying still at 6:18 pm. He was pronounced dead at 6:33 pm after the gas was turned off.
Prior to his execution, Boyd unsuccessfully appealed to courts to be executed by firing squad instead. The US Supreme Court rejected his plea that the nitrogen gas method violates the Eighth Amendment, which prohibits cruel and unusual punishments.
The Supreme Court’s decision was opposed by liberal justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson. In her dissent, Sotomayor characterized nitrogen gas as a “torturous suffocation” and argued that Boyd’s request for death by firing squad was a bare minimum of mercy that the Constitution should grant.
Boyd spent 30 years on death row after a jury vote of 10-2 found him guilty of Huguley’s murder. The Death Penalty Information Center highlights that the prosecution relied solely on witness testimony, with no physical evidence presented. The case was also heard in a county with the “highest per capita rate of death sentences in the nation” at the time. The execution reignites the ongoing debate surrounding capital punishment and the methods employed, with critics raising concerns about the humanity and constitutionality of nitrogen gas as a form of execution.
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