Arkansas governor signs legislation allowing executions by nitrogen gas

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Arkansas governor signs legislation allowing executions by nitrogen gas

2025-03-19 08:44 Last Updated At：08:50

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed legislation Tuesday allowing executions using nitrogen gas, making Arkansas the fifth state to adopt a method that opponents say is unconstitutional.

The measure signed into law by the Republican governor has been promoted by supporters as a way to carry out executions for the first time in eight years. Arkansas currently has 25 people on death row.

Arkansas has not had an execution since 2017, when it put four people to death before a sedative used in its lethal injection protocol expired. The attorney general's office has said the state has been unable to purchase more lethal injection drugs because of manufacturers' opposition to their use in executions.

“As a state we have failed to keep our promises to the friends and family of victims to execute those sentenced to death under our laws,” Attorney General Tim Griffin said in a statement. “That ends now. Act 302 gives the state the tools needed to carry out these sentences and deliver justice.”

Under the nitrogen hypoxia execution method, an inmate is forced to breathe the gas and deprived of the oxygen needed to stay alive.

Opponents say the method increases suffering, citing accounts from witnesses to Alabama executions who said inmates gasped and shook during executions. State officials say those are involuntary movements associated with oxygen deprivation.

“The decision to use nitrogen suffocation as an execution method is a dangerous and regressive move that puts Arkansas out of step with national trends away from the death penalty,” Megan Bailey, a spokesperson for the American Civil Liberties of Arkansas, said in a statement.

Arkansas has expanded the secrecy surrounding its execution process in recent years, enacting laws shrouding the source of lethal injection drugs and other details. Critics worry that the state is not required to disclose the type or source of nitrogen gas it would use.

Alabama, the first state to use nitrogen gas, has carried out four executions using the method since it began last year. And on Tuesday, Louisiana staged its first, putting to death a man convicted of killing a woman in 1996.

Two other states — Mississippi and Oklahoma — have laws allowing the method but have not used it so far.

Arkansas' law takes effect 90 days after the Legislature adjourns, which will happen in April at the earliest.

The number of executions in the U.S. last year remained near historic lows, and they happened in a small number of states.

Severe weather, including possible tornado, leaves at least 14 dead in Kentucky; 7 dead in Missouri

2025-05-17 23:18 Last Updated At：23:20

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Storm systems sweeping across parts of the Midwest and South have left at least 21 dead, many of them in Kentucky, where what appeared to be a devastating tornado crumbled buildings and flipped a car over on an interstate.

In Kentucky, some 14 people were killed by severe weather, and the death toll is likely to rise, according to Gov. Andy Beshear. Local authorities in Laurel County, in the state's southeast, said nine people were killed after a tornado touched down.

Laurel County resident Chris Cromer said he got the first of two tornado alerts on his phone around 11:30 p.m. or so, about a half-hour before the tornado struck. He and his wife grabbed their dog, jumped in their car, went to a relative's nearby home and got into a crawlspace.

“We could hear and feel the vibration of the tornado coming through,” said Cromer, 46.

His home is intact, though a piece of the roof got ripped off and windows were broken. A house two doors down is destroyed, along with others in the Sunshine Hills neighborhood, Cromer said.

“It’s one of those things that you see on the news in other areas, and you feel bad for people — then, when it happens, it’s just surreal," he said, describing a landscape of destruction. "It makes you be thankful to be alive, really.”

Rescuers were “on the ground all night looking for possible survivors," and the search was continuing into the morning, Sheriff's Office spokesperson Deputy Gilbert Acciardo. An emergency shelter was set up at a local high school and donations of food and other necessities were arriving.

The National Weather Service hadn't yet confirmed that a tornado struck, but meteorologist Philomon Geertson said it was likely. It ripped across the largely rural area and extended to the London Corbin Airport shortly before midnight.

“Lives have been changed forever here tonight. This is a time we come together, and we pray for this community,” London Mayor Randall Weddle told WKYT-TV. “I have never personally witnessed what I‘ve witnessed here tonight.”

It’s the latest severe weather to cause deaths and widespread damage in Kentucky. Two months ago, at least 24 people died in a round of storms that swelled creeks and submerged roads. Hundreds of people were rescued, and most of the deaths were caused by vehicles getting stuck in high water.

A storm in late 2021 spawned tornadoes that killed 81 people and leveled portions of towns in western Kentucky. The following summer, historic floodwaters inundated parts of eastern Kentucky, leaving dozens more dead.

About 1,200 tornadoes strike the U.S. annually, and they have been reported in all 50 states over the years. Researchers have found in recent years that deadly tornadoes were happening less frequently in the traditional “Tornado Alley” of Oklahoma, Kansas and Texas and more frequently in parts of the more densely populated and tree-filled mid-South area.

The latest Kentucky storms were part of a weather system Friday that killed seven in Missouri and also spawned tornadoes in Wisconsin, knocked out power to several hundred thousand customers in the Great Lakes region and brought a punishing heat wave to Texas.

St. Louis Mayor Cara Spencer confirmed five deaths in her city and said more than 5,000 homes were affected.

“This is truly, truly devastating,” Spencer said. An overnight curfew was imposed Friday in the neighborhoods with the most damage.

The total number of people injured was not immediately known, but hospitals in the area reported receiving dozens of patients, with some in serious condition.

National Weather Service radar indicated a likely tornado touched down between 2:30 p.m. and 2:50 p.m. in Clayton, Missouri, in the St. Louis area. The apparent tornado touched down in the area of Forest Park, home to the St. Louis Zoo and the site of the 1904 World’s Fair and Olympic Games the same year.

Three people needed aid after part of the Centennial Christian Church crumbled, City of St. Louis Fire Department Battalion Chief William Pollihan told The Associated Press.

Stacy Clark said his mother-in-law, Patricia Penelton, died in the church. He described her as a very active church volunteer who had many roles, including being part of the choir.

John Randle, a 19-year-old University of Missouri-St. Louis student, said he and his girlfriend were at the St. Louis Art Museum during the storm and were hustled into the basement with about 150 other people.

"You could see the doors flying open, tree branches flying by and people running,” he said. “A lot of people were caught outside.”

The Saint Louis Zoo remained closed Saturday because of damage, but spokesperson Christy Childs said all animals were safe and that there were no reports of significant injuries to staffers, guests or animals.

A tornado struck in Scott County, about 130 miles (209 kilometers) south of St. Louis, killing two people, injuring several others and destroying multiple homes, Sheriff Derick Wheetley wrote on social media.

The National Weather Service’s Storm Prediction Center said on its website Saturday that severe thunderstorms, large hail and “a couple of tornadoes” were expected across the southern Plains, with especially high risk in north Texas.

Contributing were Associated Press writers Haya Panjwani in Washington, D.C., Heather Hollingsworth in Kansas City, Missouri, Lisa Baumann in Bellingham, Washington, Julie Walker and Jennifer Peltz in New York and Sudhin Thanawala in Atlanta.