An Alabama man convicted of murder was killed with a controversial nitrogen gas procedure.
Anthony Todd Boyd was executed by nitrogen hypoxia in a prison in Atmore, Ala., on Thursday, October 23, according to the Alabama Attorney General’s Office.
Boyd had been convicted in the 1993 murder of Gregory Huguley. Boyd and his co-defendants allegedly kidnapped Huguley for a $200 cocaine debt.
Huguley was taken to a baseball field, duct-taped to a bench, doused with gasoline, and set on fire, according to state investigators.
Boyd was found guilty of capital murder in 1995 and condemned to death.
Boyd’s execution had been postponed for decades, but it was allowed to proceed Thursday when the United States Supreme Court declined to intervene.
According to the Montgomery Advertiser, Boyd denied killing Huguley in his final words.
“I simply want to reiterate that I did not kill anyone, nor did I engage in the death of anyone. Boyd told the press, “I just want everyone to know that there is no justice in this state.”
Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall stated that Boyd “never once presented evidence that the jury was wrong.”
According to USA Today, Boyd asked to be executed by firing squad rather than by nitrogen hypoxia, despite state officials claiming he initially requested hypoxia in 2018.
Supreme Court Justices Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor, and Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented from Alabama’s use of nitrogen gas during the execution.
“Boyd asks for the barest form of mercy: to die by firing squad, which would kill him in seconds, rather than by a tortuous suffocation lasting up to four minutes,” Sotomayor reportedly wrote in her dissent to the majority’s denial of a stay of execution.
