New Kansas bill would lead to the legalization of hypoxia to execute prisoners on death row

A new bill was introduced in the Kansas House on Thursday, February 8 and has quickly moved to have a hearing on Thursday, February 15. The bill would authorize the Secretary of Corrections to use hypoxia for the purpose of carrying out a death sentence.

Oklahoma was the first state to legalize death by Nitrogen hypoxia under the guise that it would be more humane than lethal injection. The method has become legal in states like Mississippi and Alabama as well. The thing is, this method has only ever been used once to execute a prisoner. The prisoner was Kenneth Eugene Smith who was executed in Alabama on January 25, 2024.

Critics of this method have said that, due to the masks not fitting, air can get in, leading to vomiting or even surviving the execution but suffering brain damage.

Proponents, however, have rejected what critics say. One study for Oklahoma lawmakers found that “without oxygen present, inhalation of only 1­2 breaths of pure nitrogen will cause a sudden loss of consciousness.”

The Kansas Coalition Against the Death Penalty released the following statement regarding HB 2782:

“The method of execution in Kansas is not the issue.  

“The existence of the Kansas death penalty itself IS the issue.

“Kansas continues to waste taxpayer dollars, harm victim families and prison staff, risk the lives of the innocent, and violate the morals of many Kansans for a public policy built on vengeance.

“The time to end the Kansas death penalty is NOW.”

In 2014, it was found that Kansas taxpayers pay on average four times as much for someone who gets put on death row than they do a prisoner who is not put on death row. On top of this, Kansas has not executed a prisoner since 1965. Currently, their are nine prisoners on death row in Kansas with two prisoners who have been on death row for over two decades. There have also been two prisoners in Kansas who have died on death row before their appeals were completed within the past decade.