Arkansas faith leaders recently came together at the state capitol. They’re on a mission to reverse a new state law [Act 302] which now allows executions using 100% nitrogen gas. The absence of oxygen causes the inmate to begin suffocating and eventually die.
As Little Rock Public Radio Reports, advocates of this form of execution have contended that using nitrogen gas would cause unconsciousness within seconds, making it seemingly painless. But when Alabama became the first state to use this method, on January 25, 2024, in the execution of Kenneth Smith, witnesses say Smith writhed in pain and convulsed for at least two minutes before he finally stopped moving.
So the seven clergy members, who met at the Arkansas capitol in Little Rock on Thursday, August 21, represented a coalition of 40 faith leaders from several traditions. And they all signed a letter delivered to Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders expressing their desire for her to help reverse the approval of this execution method.
Father Philip Reaves of the Catholic Diocese of Little Rock explained just one of the reasons they oppose this practice. “Nitrogen asphyxiation is a move in the wrong. It is opposed to the biblical view of human dignity. Many reports of it sound cruel and inhumane. It signals that one’s dignity is based on the person’s actions and not on God’s love.”
Governor Sanders signed the nitrogen gas execution bill, Act 302 into law on Tuesday, March 18, 2025. That made Arkansas the fifth state to adopt a method that opponents deem unconstitutional, and which United Nations observers referred to as a form of torture after watching the first execution in Alabama of Kenneth Smith. But Sanders also recently told the media she was quote, “not rushing to take action in resuming executions.”
And on Tuesday, August 5, a group of 10 Arkansas death row prisoners filed a lawsuit to block the new law from going into effect and allowing executions by nitrogen hypoxia. The suit was filed in Pulaski County Circuit Court. It alleges that Act 302 provides no guidance or standards to prison officials for carrying out the executions. It also says all death row inmates in the state were sentenced when lethal injection was the only option for executions.
