House Bill 1489

Arkansas Legislature approves executions using nitrogen hypoxia

KUAR | By Daniel Breen

A proposal to allow executions using nitrogen gas has cleared the Arkansas Legislature.

Execution Chamber - Wikimedia

House Bill 1489 now heads to Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders. If signed into law, Arkansas would become the fourth state in the U.S. – joining Alabama, Oklahoma and Mississippi – to allow executions by nitrogen hypoxia.

The bill’s co-sponsor Sen. Blake Johnson, R-Corning, introduced it on the Senate floor Tuesday.

“These are the worst of the worst in our society, and they have [gone] through the judicial system and many of them have been on death row for 20 and 30 years,” Johnson said. “We have a responsibility to those who are on death row and the citizens we serve to take this seriously and to administer this penalty.”

Arkansas Legislature approves executions using nitrogen hypoxia