PRES. TRUMP AWARDED INAUGURAL FIFA PEACE PRIZE AT WORLD CUP DRAW IN WASHINGTON . (PHOTOS).
Alabama executed death row inmate Anthony Boyd on Thursday using nitrogen hypoxia, a method Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor called “torturous suffocation.” Boyd, 53, was put to death at the William C. Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, Alabama, for a 1993 murder he has long denied committing.
Boyd had been sentenced for the killing of Gregory Huguley, who was burned alive over a $200 cocaine debt. Court records show Boyd and co-defendants restrained Huguley, doused him with gasoline, and set him on fire. Boyd maintained his innocence throughout his decades-long legal battle, claiming he was at a birthday party and a motel the night of the murder. His appeals, including requests to block the use of nitrogen hypoxia or have his execution carried out by firing squad, were rejected. The U.S. Supreme Court denied a stay on Thursday, and Boyd was pronounced dead at 6:33 p.m. CDT.
The execution drew criticism from Sotomayor, joined by Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson, who highlighted the prolonged psychological suffering nitrogen hypoxia causes. Boyd’s attorneys argued his original trial suffered from inadequate representation, relying heavily on inconsistent eyewitness testimony without physical evidence. Nitrogen hypoxia, first used in the U.S. in 2024, deprives the brain of oxygen by forcing inmates to breathe nitrogen. Boyd was the 40th person executed in the U.S. this year.
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