A Noxious Echo: How Nitrogen Hypoxia Evokes Images of the Gas Chamber and Pushes the Bounds of the Eighth Amendment
In 2024, the United States turned back the clock and returned to a tradition unheard of in much of the world: death by lethal gas. A decade of botched executions and controversies surrounding lethal injection prompted states to look for other methods of execution. While the use of nitrogen gas as a form of capital punishment is a relatively recent phenomenon, the origins of using lethal gas to execute individuals have century-old roots within the American criminal justice system.
This Note examines the history of lethal gas executions in the United States, as well as the jurisprudence surrounding the method. Building upon this historical backdrop, this Note discusses the contemporary movement towards nitrogen gas, explores how courts have responded to Eighth Amendment challenges, and provides several recommendations litigators and opponents of capital punishment can leverage to argue against the constitutionality of nitrogen gas executions.