It’s highly likely that that fall-out from the state sponsored execution of a convicted killer in Alabama, sent to his death by inhaling nitrogen gas and suffocating, will be heard loud and clear here in Nebraska.

A bill now in the Legislature would allow nitrogen to be used here as well, that while critics call it inhumane. 

[View our full video report above]

Rev. Dr. Jeff Hood, Spiritual Adviser for Kenneth Smith: "He kept breathing for what could possibly have been about nine minutes, ten minutes. I mean, an unbelievable evil was unleashed tonight in Alabama. I've never, ever seen anything like that. That was torture.”

One eyewitness description of the death of convicted killer Kenneth Smith in Alabama, the first U.S. execution by inhaling nitrogen, causing suffocation.

The state says Smith’s death was by the book.

John Hamm, Alabama Commissioner of Corrections: "It appeared that one Smith was holding his breath as long as he could. And then there's also information out there he struggled against his restraints a little bit, but there's some involuntary movement and some agonal breathing. So, that was all expected and is in the side effects that we've seen of research on nitrogen hypoxia. So, nothing was out of the ordinary what we were expecting."

The last execution in Nebraska was six years ago.

Cary Dean Moore, who killed two cab drivers in 1979, died by lethal injection in 2018, but the drugs needed for lethal injection are now almost impossible to acquire leading some to call for the highly controversial nitrogen gas alternative.

Still no date for the public hearing on all this, let alone any idea if the Legislature would vote this year. 

There are currently a dozen men on death row in Nebraska, some there for more than 20 years.