LIBERAL JUSTICES CRITICIZE SUPREME COURT'S APPROVAL OF NITROGEN GAS EXECUTION IN ALABAMA . (PHOTO).

 Liberal justices criticize Supreme Court's approval of nitrogen gas execution in Alabama 

Justice Sonia Sotomayor sharply criticized the Supreme Court’s decision to allow Alabama to proceed with a nitrogen hypoxia execution, calling the method cruel, psychologically tormenting, and unconstitutional. Writing Thursday in a dissent joined by Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson, Sotomayor offered a vivid description of what the execution would entail, urging readers to imagine being suffocated while fully conscious.

Sotomayor detailed how inmate Anthony Boyd, convicted of a 1995 murder, would be strapped to a gurney and forced to breathe nitrogen gas, causing intense psychological distress for up to four minutes before death. She contrasted this with Boyd’s request to die by firing squad, which would result in near-instantaneous death, saying Alabama denied him the “barest form of mercy.” The dissent highlighted previous nitrogen hypoxia executions in Alabama and Louisiana, which resulted in convulsions and prolonged visible suffering. Sotomayor argued that courts must consider the extraordinary psychological torment inflicted by such experimental execution methods and criticized her colleagues for allowing the practice to continue without addressing the constitutional violations she says it creates.