Alabama completes another execution using nitrogen gas

As reported in this local article, “Alabama has executed Gregory Hunt by nitrogen hypoxia for the 1988 murder of Karen Lane.”  Here is more:

A doctor pronounced Hunt to dead at 6:26 p.m. June 10. His death marked Alabama’s third execution of the year. Overall, Hunt is the fifth person to be executed by nitrogen hypoxia in Alabama. The state executed its first inmate by nitrogen hypoxia in 2024. Across the globe, organizations, including the Vatican, have protested the use of nitrogen hypoxia in execution, calling it cruel and unusual punishment….

John Hamm, the Alabama Department of Corrections commissioner, defended nitrogen hypoxia as a humane way to execute people in Alabama. Hamm said that five of Lane’s family members witnessed the execution, and Hamm read a statement from her family.

“… Make no mistake, this night is not about the life of Greg Hunt,” the family said in the statement. “This night is about the horrific death of Karen Sanders Lane, whose life was so savagely taken from her. Karen was shown no mercy. She was not given a second chance. Karen was shown no grace. This is also not about closure or victory. This night represents justice and the end of a nightmare that has coursed through our family for 37 long years.”…

Hunt beat Lane to death Aug. 2, 1988 in her home in Cordova. He was charged with sexual abuse, burglary and capital murder. Hunt admitted murdering Lane but denied that he sexually abused her, even filing a final appeal May 23, claiming he did not sexually abuse Lane….

Court documents show Hunt beat Lane with his hands, feet and a bar stool. She had 62 individual external injuries to her body. Internally, Lane had more than 20 fractures to her ribs and rib cage, a broken sternum, a lacerated liver and injuries to her aorta. She died of blunt force trauma and bruising of the brain.