Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost plans on Tuesday to share details on the future of the state’s executions, which have been consistently rescheduled, partly because of a lack of drugs necessary for lethal injection. Without giving any more details, Yost said that he would share “next steps to kickstart” Ohio’s capital punishment system, NBC4 reports.
HIs announcement comes days after Alabama used nitrogen hypoxia as a new method to kill Kenneth Eugene Smith, 58. Afterward, Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall called the result a “textbook” execution and invited other states to try it. “As of last night, nitrogen hypoxia as a means of execution is no longer an untested method. It is a proven one,” Marshall said. Nitrogen hypoxia, the first new method since lethal injection was introduced in 1982, kills inmates to breathe pure nitrogen gas through a respirator mask, depriving them of oxygen.