Anthony Todd Boyd yesterday became the seventh inmate in Alabama to be executed using a new controversial method, just hours after it was condemned.
The 54-year-old’s sentence was carried out in the evening of October 23, with state officials confirming that he was pronounced dead at 6:33 p.m. local time.
Boyd was convicted after the shocking 1993 murder of Gregory Huguley. Prosecutors at trial argued that he and three other men had tracked down Huguley over an alleged $200 cocaine debt.
They subsequently kidnapped Huguley before dousing him in gasoline and watching as he burned to death. Boyd’s accomplices testified against him, though he claimed to have been at a party while the horrific crime played out.
When he was ultimately found guilty of capital murder by a jury in 1995, Boyd was reduced to tears. He is said to have told reporters shortly afterwards: “I’ll maintain my innocence until the day I die.”
And maintain it he did. With some of his last words prior to his execution yesterday, Boyd said: “I just wanna say again, I didn’t kill anybody, I didn’t participate in killing anybody.
“I just want everyone to know, there is no justice in this state.”
He was thereafter put to death by nitrogen gas, a process that sees a mask placed over the condemned prisoner’s face before the gas is administered. Coincidentally, the US Supreme Court recently raised serious concerns over the execution method, claiming it causes ‘intense psychological torment’.
Prior to his sentence being carried out, Boyd had requested the use of an alternative method of execution, such as a firing squad. His wish was denied, however, a decision criticized by Sonia Sotomayor, Associate Justice of the US Supreme Court.
“Boyd asks for the barest form of mercy: to die by firing squad, which would kill him in seconds, rather than by a tortuous suffocation lasting up to four minutes,” Sotomayor wrote. “The Constitution would grant him that grace. My colleagues do not.”
Witnesses at the execution said the nitrogen gas began flowing at 5:57pm. Boyd took ‘deep, shuddering breaths’ for 14 minutes. As per the Montgomery Advisor, his brother claimed: “It’s like he’s gasping for air.”
After a series of “choking breaths”, Boyd’s last breath reportedly didn’t come until around 6:17pm.
“After 30 years on death row, Anthony Boyd’s death sentence has been carried out, and his victim’s family has finally received justice,” Alabama Governor Kay Ivey said after the execution.
What do you make of this apparently controversial method of execution? Leave your thoughts below.
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