An Alabama death row inmate was executed Tuesday by nitrogen gas for the 1988 killing of a 32-year-old woman.
Gregory Hunt, 65, was pronounced dead at 6:26 p.m., about 30 minutes after the procedure started at a south Alabama jail.
Hunt gave no final statement but appeared to make a thumbs-up and a peace sign while strapped to a gurney with a blue-rimmed mask covering his face.
As the gas began flowing at 5:55 p.m., Hunt started shaking and gasping for air before he raised his head off the gurney, let out a moan, and raised his feet.
The inmate took around four more gasping breaths with long pauses before stopping all movements by 6:05 p.m.
“What I saw has been consistent with all the other nitrogen hypoxia executions.
There is involuntary body movement,” said Corrections Commissioner John Hamm.
Hunt was convicted in 1990 of beating 32-year-old Karen Lane to death on Aug. 2, 1988, in a fit of jealousy.
“Karen was a young woman whose life was stolen in the most brutal and dehumanizing way imaginable,” Attorney General Steve Marshall said, calling the nation’s sixth nitrogen gas execution “a long-overdue moment of justice.”
