The Alabama Senate on Tuesday advanced a bill that would allow death row inmates to be executed by nitrogen gas.
Republican state Sen. Trip Pittman’s bill was passed 25-8. The sponsor said the state needs this additional means of execution as lethal injection is currently being challenged in court.
The legislation will now move to the House for consideration. If passed, the Cotton State would become the third in the nation to add this type of method as an option for execution.
Although Mississippi and Oklahoma currently offer nitrogen gas as an execution method, neither state has ever used it on a person.
