Agonising three-hour death from botched lethal injection, notorious last meals ... trends now
The impending execution of killer Kenneth Eugene Smith with untested nitrogen has brought America's controversial capital punishment system back into sharp focus.
Smith will be gassed to death with nitrogen hypoxia tomorrow at 6pm in Atmore, Alabama, after the US Supreme Court denied his appeal.
It will be the first execution of its kind in the US and first known nitrogen execution in the world.
But Smith's demise will be just the latest in a long line of officially sanctioned killings in the United States.
The 2000 hit film adaptation of Stephen King's novel the Green Mile, which featured a horrifying electric chair execution scene, was loosely based on the real case of 14-year-old George Stinney, who was electrocuted for the murders of two girls in 1944.
In 1928, housewife Ruth Snyder was executed by the same method after murdering her husband with her lover. Incredibly, a photographer took a secret picture of the moment of her death using a camera strapped to his ankle.
The 2000 hit film adaptation of Stephen King's novel the Green Mile, which featured a horrifying electric chair execution scene, was loosely based on the real case of 14-year-old George Stinney, who was electrocuted for the murders of two girls in 1944
In 1928, housewife Ruth Snyder was executed by the same method after murdering her husband with her lover. Incredibly, a photographer took a secret picture of the moment of her death using a camera strapped to his ankle
In August 2022, convicted killer Joe Nathan James endured the longest execution in history, when he was slowly put to death over an agonizing three-hour ordeal.
In October the previous year, death row killer John Marion Grant yelled 'let's go!' before vomiting and convulsing 'two dozen times' as an Oklahoma execution team delivered a controversial three-drug lethal injection.
In 2014, again in Oklahoma, 38-year-old murderer Clayton Lockett spent 40 minutes writhing in agony after also being given a three-drug injection.
Other killers who have been put to death in the US have uttered some bizarre final words.
In 2012, Robert Charles Towery, who had been convicted of the murder of a man who lent him money, said, 'I love my family. Potato, potato, potato', before he was put to death in Arizona, Texas.
The strange utterance was actually a secret message to his nephew. Sources said he was trying to convey the sound a Harley-Davidson motorbike makes when idling.
His lawyer claimed it was the murderer's way of saying 'everything was ok'.
In 1987, double murderer Jimmy Glass said 'I'd rather be fishing' moments before he was executed in the electric chair.
Stinney is believed to have been the archetype for the Green Mile's central character, John Coffey
Texas's execution chamber in Huntsville, where several inmates were killed last year
