Executioners in Idaho on Wednesday abandoned their attempt to perform lethal injections on one of the nation’s longest-serving death row inmates after repeated attempts to tap a vein were unsuccessful.

Public defenders representing the inmate, Thomas Eugene Creech, and witnesses said officials attempted to insert needles into each of Mr. Creech’s limbs before abandoning the attempt. Mr Creech’s death sentence expired at the end of the day and he was returned to his cell.

It was Idaho’s first execution attempt in more than a decade.

The bust was the latest in a series of botched executions across the country, often due to executioners having trouble finding veins. Under legal pressure, some states have explored alternatives, including nitrogen gas, and Idaho is one of several states that recently approved the use of firing squads to carry out the death penalty.

After the botched execution, Mr. Creech’s lawyers filed a motion in federal court to halt further efforts to execute him and denounced the failures of the Idaho Department of Correction.

“We are angry but not surprised that the state of Idaho botched the execution of Thomas Creech today,” the attorneys said in a statement.

Mr Creech, 73, was convicted of five murders and suspected of others. He served 50 years in prison and was sentenced to death in 1983 for the murder of David Jensen, a fellow inmate whom Mr Creech attacked with a sock full of batteries.

Mr. Creech’s lawyers had tried unsuccessfully to prevent his execution, arguing in part that it was unconstitutional to kill Mr. Creech because he had been convicted by a judge and not a jury. Hours before his execution was to take place, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected his remaining appeals.

The state began executing Mr. Creech at 10 a.m. Witnesses said medical workers used vein finders, hot compresses and blood pressure cuffs to access the veins. They tried putting an IV in his arms first and then moving to his legs. At one point, a member of the medical team left the room to bring in more supplies.

Josh Tewalt, the director of the Idaho Department of Correction, said the medical team conducted an examination and believed it could achieve access to a vein. But the team later concluded there were problems with “vein quality,” he said.

Mr. Tewalt praised the team for its efforts. “Our first goal is to conduct this with dignity, professionalism and respect,” he said.

Media witnesses said that nearly an hour after the execution, Creech reported that his legs “were a little sore,” which the state attributed to cramps. Soon after, Mr. Tewalt consulted with the medical team and determined that an IV line could not be established, officials said. The state says it is considering next steps.

The failure came about a month after officials in Alabama, which had a series of botched lethal injections in 2022, executed a prisoner with nitrogen gas, the first time the method had been used in capital punishment in the United States. Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall said the execution was “humane and effective.” But witnesses said the inmate, Kenneth Smith, shook and writhed for several minutes as the gas was administered.

A growing number of states have banned the death penalty, while others have had difficulty enforcing their execution schedules because they have been unable to obtain lethal drugs. Idaho was one of those states, although it was able to acquire the drugs after the Legislature passed a law in 2022 protecting the identities of those who supply them.

Mr. Tewalt said he could not say what the state would do next. While the firing squad was an option under Idaho law, he said the state does not yet have the capabilities to implement that. “We will continue to work on these efforts,” he said. He added that a change in state law is needed to make nitrogen gas an option.

“In terms of determining when to request a new death sentence, whether to request a new death sentence, these are discussions that need to happen in the coming days,” Mr. Tewalt said.

Alabama's planned execution of a death row inmate on Thursday evening will be carried out under a procedure never used for capital punishment in the United States.

The inmate, Kenneth Smith, who was convicted of a stabbing murder in 1988, will be put to death by inhaling nitrogen gas, a method known as nitrogen hypoxia.

Proponents of the method say it is quick and painless. But earlier this month, the United Nations Human Rights Office urged Alabama to halt the execution it could amount to torture and violate the human rights treaties to which the United States has agreed.

Alabama would be the first state to adopt nitrogen hypoxia, but other states are interested in adopting the method.

What is nitrogen hypoxia?

Hypoxia is a medical term for a condition of insufficient oxygen in the body. Nitrogen, a colorless and odorless gas, makes up about 78 percent of the air breathed by humans. But according to the method of nitrogen hypoxia, the person inhales only nitrogen, which leads to unconsciousness within minutes and then death from lack of oxygen.

How is the nitrogen administered?

According to the protocol Released by Alabama prison officials, members of the 'execution team' Mr. Strapping Smith to a gurney in the state execution chamber in Atmore. A mask will be placed on his head and it will release nitrogen, depriving him of oxygen. Many experts liken this process to placing a plastic bag over someone's head, although in that situation the person is breathing carbon dioxide instead of nitrogen.

Why is this method used now?

The standard method of execution since the 1980s has been the lethal injection of heart-stopping drugs. But states have had problems with lethal injections for years.

Some states have struggled to obtain sufficient quantities of drugs for lethal injections.

Even when dosed correctly, many executions have failed because the team administering the injection failed to locate the correct veins.

This is what happened to Mr. Smith in Alabama. He was scheduled to be executed by lethal injection in November 2022, but a team of people repeatedly failed to properly insert an intravenous line.

This problem often arises because medical ethics rules prohibit physicians and other healthcare professionals from assisting in an execution. The injections are therefore usually administered by inexperienced prison staff Dr. Joel Zivotassociate professor of anesthesiology at Emory School of Medicine and an expert on physician participation in lethal injections.

Lethal injections also involve drugs that, if administered incorrectly, can cause significant pain and suffering.

Proponents of using nitrogen hypoxia believe that it is an easier and more humane alternative because it does not require an injection and is quick and painless.

Has nitrogen hypoxia been used in other situations?

A few years ago, Dr. Philip Nitschke, an Australian physician and founder of Leave International, which advocates medically assisted suicide, developed a pod in which a patient could flip a switch and release the flow of nitrogen. He recently told The New York Times that he had witnessed about 50 deaths from nitrogen hypoxia.

Is there research into the impact of nitrogen on humans?

Very little, which is why some people believe it should not be used in state executions. Most reports in medical journals concern nitrogen exposure from spills and industrial accidents that kill workers, as well as suicide attempts.

In a 1963 experiment to study the effect of brief hypoxia on three healthy volunteers: “Most of them had seizures within 15 to 20 seconds of inhaling pure nitrogen,” said Dr. Zivot.

What are the disadvantages of this method?

Doctors say the inmate was able to vomit into his mask, which not only suffocated him but also loosened the seal, allowing oxygen to flow in and diluting the nitrogen.

Mr. Smith's lawyers have argued as much this is a likely scenario for Mr. Smithwho, they said, has been vomiting continuously in recent days, which they associate with the PTSD he suffered from the botched execution in 2022.

Corrections officials in Alabama said Mr Smith would not be fed after 10am on Thursday morning to reduce the chance of vomiting while on the stretcher.

Mr. Smith's head and body will be securely strapped to the stretcher to prevent flogging and mask displacement. It is not known whether he will be given a sedative before the execution, which would further reduce the chance of a beating. But Dr. Zivot noted that sedating a patient is a medical procedure and typically requires the intervention of a doctor.

Veterinarians have generally stopped using nitrogen to euthanize animals that showed severe signs of distress. Critics and supporters of the method absolutely disagree about whether nitrogen would bother a person.

“Nobody really knows what's going to happen,” says Dr. Jeffrey Keller, chairman of the American College of Correctional Physicians. 'So he'll suffocate? Will he throw up? Does the mask fit or is the nitrogen leaking out? Will that nitrogen be harmful to anyone else standing nearby? Nobody knows anything about this. It's an experiment.”

Alabama will carry out the first U.S. execution with nitrogen gas on Thursday evening, potentially opening a new frontier in how states execute death row inmates, despite concerns from capital punishment opponents about the untested method.

Several courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court, have allowed the execution to proceed, although lawyers for the convicted inmate, Kenneth Smith, filed a last-minute request for the nation's highest court to intervene.

As it stands now, prison officials plan to begin the execution around 6:00 PM Central Time. Mr. Smith, 58, is one of three men convicted of the 1988 murder of a woman whose pastor husband recruited them to kill her.

The protocol released by prison officials calls for Mr. Smith to be strapped to a gurney in the state execution chamber in Atmore, Ala., after which a mask will be placed on his head and a stream of nitrogen will be released into it, depriving him of oxygen robbed. It would be the second time the state has attempted to kill Mr Smith, following a botched lethal injection in November 2022 in which executioners failed to find a suitable vein before his death sentence expired.

The nitrogen method is similar to that used in some assisted suicide in Europe and elsewhere. Lawyers for the state have argued that death from nitrogen hypoxia is known to be painless, with unconsciousness occurring within seconds, followed by cardiac arrest. They also note that Mr. Smith and his lawyers have themselves determined that the method is preferable to the state's troubled practice of lethal injections.

Mr. Smith's lawyers argue that Alabama is not adequately prepared to carry out the execution, that a mask — instead of a bag or other covering — could let in enough oxygen to prolong the process and allow Mr. Smith suffer, and that Mr. Smith should suffer. Smith, who has been experiencing frequent nausea lately, could choke under the mask if he vomits.

A federal appeals court voted 2-1 on Wednesday evening to allow the execution to proceed, following concerns raised by Mr. Smith's lawyers. One of the attorneys, Jeffrey H. Horowitz, said the legal team would appeal the case to the Supreme Court, which amounts to a possible last-ditch effort to spare his life.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday declined to intervene in the attorneys' appeal in a separate case in which they had argued that trying to execute Mr. Smith a second time would amount to unconstitutional, cruel and unusual punishment, in part because of the dire consequences of the failed execution. There had been an execution attempt in 2022.

Mr. Smith's case is unique in part because the jury that convicted him of murder also voted 11 to 1 to sentence him to life in prison instead of the death penalty, but the judge overruled their decision. Alabama has since made it illegal for judges to overrule juries when imposing the death penalty — a ban that now exists in every state — but the new law did not apply to previous cases.

If the execution goes ahead without any visible problems, the procedure will likely also come under scrutiny by other states that face mounting problems in obtaining lethal injection drugs from pharmaceutical companies, under pressure from medical groups, activists and lawyers. Mississippi and Oklahoma have allowed their prisons to carry out executions by nitrogen hypoxia if they cannot use lethal injection, although they have never tried.

Nitrogen makes up about 78 percent of Earth's air and is normally harmless; oxygen, which makes up about 21 percent, is essential for human life. But when nitrogen is pumped into an enclosed space or a mask, it can quickly push out the oxygen and lead to rapid unconsciousness and death.

Alabama's first attempt at this method comes after several botched or difficult executions in which executioners struggled to find veins in the men they tried to put to death.

In 2022, executioners spent hours trying to gain access to the veins of Joe Nathan James, ultimately cutting one of his arms in what is known as a “cutdown” to administer the fatal drugs, according to a private autopsy. Since 2018, three death row inmates in the state, including Mr. Smith, have survived execution attempts because they had difficulty inserting intravenous lines.

Four days after Mr. Smith failed to be executed in 2022, the state's governor, Kay Ivey, a Republican, halted all executions in the state and asked the prison system, the Alabama Department of Corrections, to review its procedures. The state resumed executing people in 2023, killing two men by lethal injection.

If the execution goes ahead Thursday evening, Mr. Smith is scheduled to be accompanied in the execution chamber by the Rev. Jeff Hood, a spiritual adviser who has spoken with him regularly over the past two months. Mr. Hood said early Thursday that he had met with Mr. Smith the day before and that he had frequently vomited into a trash can in the jail.

Mr Hood said both he and Mr Smith believe the execution is increasingly likely and are increasingly concerned that trouble could arise.

“We feel like we are walking into a sick, twisted house of horrors,” said Mr. Hood, who met with prison officials in the execution chamber on Wednesday to discuss protocols. “It feels like the longer this goes on, the less we know.”

“Kenny is terrified,” he added. “He's terrified that this thing is going to completely torture him.”

Among the other witnesses to the execution are Mr. Smith's relatives and lawyers, prison officials and five reporters from Alabama. Some relatives of the woman killed in the 1988 stabbing, Elizabeth Sennett, have also indicated they plan to attend.

According to court documents, Ms Sennett was stabbed ten times by Mr Smith and another man during the attack. Her husband, Charles Sennett Sr., had recruited a man to handle her murder, who in turn recruited Mr. Smith and a third man. According to court records, Mr. Sennett arranged the murder in part to collect on an insurance policy he took out on his wife. He had promised the men $1,000 each for the murder.

Mr Sennett later committed suicide; one of the other men involved in the murder was executed by lethal injection in 2010, and the third was sentenced to life in prison and passed away in 2020.

Abbie VanSickle reporting contributed.

The U.S. Supreme Court and a federal appeals court each declined Wednesday to intervene to stop Alabama from carrying out the nation's first-ever execution with nitrogen gas, putting the state on track to use the new method to carry out a murder. murder a death row inmate.

Alabama plans to use nitrogen gas to kill Kenneth Smith, who was convicted of a 1988 murder after the state failed in its previous attempt to execute him by lethal injection in November 2022. Barring further legal intervention, prison officials plan to take him to prison. execution chamber in Atmore, Alabama, on Thursday evening, placed a mask on his face and pumped nitrogen into it, depriving him of oxygen until he died.

The Supreme Court declined to intervene in Mr. Smith's appeal of a state lawsuit in which his lawyers had argued that the second execution attempt would violate his Eighth Amendment right to be free from cruel and unusual punishment. The court's order contained no explanation and noted no dissent.

Hours later, in response to a separate challenge by Mr. Smith's lawyers, a federal appeals court ruled also refused to stop the execution due to the dissent of one of the three judges who had heard the case. Mr Smith's lawyers said they would also appeal the case to the Supreme Court, potentially giving the justices another chance to intervene, although they have been reluctant to do so in appeals to the Supreme Court in recent years last moment against the death penalty.

Nitrogen gas has been used in assisted suicide in Europe and elsewhere, and the state's lawyers argue that the method – known as nitrogen hypoxia – is painless and will quickly cause Mr Smith to lose consciousness before he dies.

But Mr. Smith and his lawyers have said they fear the state's newly created protocol is not enough to prevent problems that could cause Mr. Smith serious suffering. The lawyers said in the lawsuits that if the mask fit poorly, it could let in oxygen and prolong Mr. Smith's suffering, or if he became nauseous, he could “choke on his own vomit.”

The execution is expected to take place at the William C. Holman Correctional Facility around 6:00 PM Central Time, but could be carried out anytime until 6:00 AM the following morning. Mr. Smith has recently reported feeling increasingly nauseous as his concerns about the impending execution grow, raising his lawyers' fears about an accident during the execution. Alabama prison officials said this week that they do not plan to let him eat anything after 10 a.m. Thursday, in an effort to reduce the chance of him vomiting.

Abbie VanSickle reporting contributed.

It was November 17, 2022, and Kenneth Smith lay on a stretcher in the Alabama execution chamber, his arms and legs bound, as he waited to be put to death. Mr Smith, who had been on death row for more than a quarter of a century after being convicted of murdering a woman, recalled thanking God for the last week he was alive and thinking of his family.

At the time, the state used the same execution method used in the vast majority of modern American executions: lethal injection. And like many other states, Alabama had problems. That night, a team of people repeatedly tried and failed to place an intravenous line in Mr. Smith's arms and hands, eventually reaching a vein near his heart. The stinging stopped — according to his lawyers, who recounted in court papers Mr. Smith's experiences that evening — when prison officials decided they might not have time to carry out the execution before the death sentence expired at midnight.

Now, more than a year later, Alabama is once again preparing for Mr. Smith's execution this week, this time using a method never used in an American execution: nitrogen hypoxia. Under this method, which is used in assisted suicide in Europe, Mr Smith will be fitted with a mask and administered a stream of nitrogen gas, effectively depriving him of oxygen until he dies.

The execution, scheduled for Thursday evening, is the latest twist in the fraught battle over executions in the US, where a growing number of states are banning the death penalty; those who retain the punishment find it difficult to carry it out. Pressure from activist and medical groups has made it challenging for prison officials to obtain lethal drugs, and a series of executions in the past two years have been plagued by problems finding veins. Alabama is one of several states exploring alternatives, including nitrogen hypoxia, and some states have recently authorized the use of a firing squad.

This week's scheduled execution has galvanized death penalty critics who say Alabama prison officials are making Mr. Smith a test subject for an unproven and potentially macabre experiment. State officials claim that death from nitrogen hypoxia is painless because it causes a person to quickly lose consciousness. They note that Mr. Smith's lawyers themselves have determined that nitrogen hypoxia is preferable to Alabama's burdensome administration of lethal injection drugs.

Last week, a federal judge in Alabama spoke a request rejected by Mr. Smith's lawyers to halt the execution. Mr. Smith has appealed, and the case will most likely continue before the U.S. Supreme Court, which in recent years has been reluctant to halt executions at the last minute.

Mr Smith, who responded to written questions by email, said he was concerned the process could go wrong.

“I'm afraid we've told Alabama that these risks can happen — will happen — just as we warned them last year,” he said. “And they will do nothing to prevent these dangers from happening.”

The details of how the proceedings are expected to unfold are laid out in a 40-page protocol document Alabama released last summer, the public version of which is heavily redacted.

What is known is that Mr. Smith will be led from his cell at the William C. Holman Correctional Facility to the prison's death chamber. The complex is in Atmore, Ala., about 60 miles northeast of Mobile, and five reporters are allowed to witness the execution. Mr Smith is placed on a stretcher and a mask is placed over his face, after which he is given two minutes to say his final words. Then the prison guard or an assistant will begin pumping the gas into Mr. Smith's mask for at least 15 minutes.

Few people have an intimate knowledge of what a nitrogen hypoxia execution might look like. However, one of them is Dr. Philip Nitschke, a pioneer in assisted suicide, who recently invented a capsule that fills with nitrogen so people can end their lives.

Dr. Nitschke estimates he has witnessed at least 50 deaths from nitrogen hypoxia. He was called by Mr. Smith's lawyers in December to testify during their efforts to block the execution, and he met with Mr. Smith. After visiting the execution chamber in Alabama and examining the mask that will be used by the state in Mr. Smith's death, Dr. Nitschke said in an interview that he could imagine scenarios ranging from a quick and painless death to death with significant suffering if the situation arose. going wrong.

He said the major difference between Alabama's protocols and those of its assisted suicide in Europe and Australia lies in Alabama's plan to use a mask. He said it would create a greater chance of a leak – which would let in oxygen and prolong the process – than a chamber, capsule or plastic bag.

“I'm worried about Kenny, and I just don't know which way things are going to go,” said Dr. Nitschke about Mr. Smith, who he said seemed very nervous when the two met.

“What he would have liked to hear from me,” said Dr. Nitschke, “was that this would work well.” But, he said, he didn't feel he could promise Mr. Smith that much. Instead, he viewed Alabama's protocols as a “quick and nasty” attempt at nitrogen hypoxia, ignoring the potential dangers of vomiting and air leakage.

During the execution, Mr.'s spiritual advisor will be in the room. Smith present, Rev. Jeff Hood, who lives in Little Rock, Ark. He started in November with Mr. Smith developed what he describes as a close bond, and planned to be present during the performance.

Mr. Hood said in an interview that he feared what Mr. Smith would have to endure, and he raised the possibility that Mr. Smith might physically resist the execution attempt.

“This is not going to be a peaceful experiment,” Mr Hood said, adding: “I think it's important that people realize that if you tie someone up like that, you can't expect someone to suffocate – suffocate to death – for no reason. to resist.”

Mr. Hood said he also worried about his own safety and noted that prison officials needed him to sign a waiver that warns of the potential dangers of nitrogen and to keep a distance of one meter from Mr Smith while wearing the mask.

Mr. Smith is executed for the 1988 stabbing murder of Elizabeth Sennett, following testimony that Mrs. Sennett's husband, a minister, had offered to pay Mr. Smith and two other men $1,000 each to kill her. (The preacher, Charles Sennett Sr., later committed suicide.) The jurors who convicted Mr. Smith voted 11 to 1 to spare his life and instead sentence him to life in prison, but a judge overruled them and sentenced him to death. In 2017, Alabama no longer allowed judges to overrule death penalty juries in such a manner, and such rulings are no longer allowed anywhere in the United States.

Mr Smith said he did not believe it was the judge's right to overrule the jury's verdict in his case. Since the failed execution attempt, Mr. Smith said, he had suffered from severe anxiety and depression.

For Ms Sennett's sons, the execution cannot come soon enough – especially after the failed attempt in 2022 – and they have said the new method caused them little concern.

“Some of these people say, 'Well, he doesn't have to suffer like this,'” one son, Charles Sennett Jr., said told WAAY 31 television station. “Well, he didn't ask Mom how to suffer. They just did it. They stabbed her several times.”

Mr Sennett said he and other family members planned to attend the execution.

Another son, Michael Sennett, told NBC News last month that he was frustrated that the state had taken so long to carry out an execution that the judge had ordered decades ago.

“I don't care how he gets out, as long as he gets out,” he said, noting that Mr. Smith had “spent twice as long in prison as long as I've known my mother.”

A slew of botched executions in Alabama, including that of Mr. Smith, prompted the state's governor, Kay Ivey, a Republican, to order a temporary pause in executions while prison officials reviewed their procedures. Ms. Ivey lifted the pause after a few months, with prison officials describing some minor changes and a new rule that gives the state more time to carry out executions.

Since executions resumed, the state has killed two death row inmates and has not had the kind of problems that plagued previous attempts.

Polls consistently show that a small majority of Americans support the death penalty, with a sharp divide along political lines. Most Republicans (81 percent) and only 32 percent of Democrats support the death penalty for people convicted of murder. one Gallup poll last year.

Still, the number of executions has declined significantly since the modern peak of 98 in 1999. Last year, states executed 24 people, and the federal government has played an increasing role in recent years. The Trump administration has put 13 people to death by lethal injection, the first executions by the federal government since George W. Bush was president.

Last week, the Justice Department under President Joe Biden, who campaigned on ending the federal death penalty, said it would seek the death penalty against a white gunman who killed 10 Black people in a racist attack on a Buffalo supermarket.

Anna Betts reporting contributed.

CNN, Fox News and MSNBC all held a live news conference Thursday from former President Donald J. Trump on the final day of his civil fraud trial, a stark reminder that the former president’s legal troubles provide him with a uniquely outrageous media platform while he is seeking the Republican nomination.

His appearance lasted just a few minutes, but viewers were treated to an unfiltered barrage of inflammatory and misleading comments, with Mr Trump attacking President Biden as a “cunning” politician who “couldn’t string two sentences together.”

Fraud allegations against a former president are undoubtedly newsworthy, but Trump has used the legal proceedings as an opportunity to steal the media spotlight — a notable advantage over rivals like Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley, who are vying for comparable airtime. .

The episode also highlighted the difficult choices facing television journalists as the 2024 campaign begins in earnest on Monday with the Iowa caucuses: how to handle live coverage of Mr. Trump, given his penchant for making baseless claims.

“We just have to do a lot of fact checking — and brace ourselves, because this is going to take a while,” CNN anchor Brianna Keilar said Thursday after her network reported Trump’s comments in full. She and a co-host, Boris Sanchez, spent several minutes refuting several of Mr. Trump’s claims at the news conference, which Mr. Sanchez described as “largely false.”

In the years since Mr. Trump left the White House, TV producers have found it easier to justify not delivering his remarks live since he was no longer in power. Even Fox News, which once helped boost Trump’s status among the American right, refused to air live interviews with the former president for nearly two years.

With Mr. Trump now leading in many polls for the Republican nomination, networks can become more flexible by having him appear live on air. Fox News held a live town hall with Mr. Trump in Iowa on Wednesday evening.

On Thursday, Fox News covered Trump’s Manhattan press conference as it happened. Host John Roberts took the opportunity to reminisce about Trump’s lengthy and freewheeling press conferences during his presidency, saying Thursday’s appearance “could be a harbinger of things to come.”

His co-host, Sandra Smith, reminded viewers that Mr. Trump had been ordered to pay $5 million to the writer E. Jean Carroll in a sexual abuse and defamation case — despite Mr. Trump’s claim to the press conference that “I have no idea who this woman is.”

MSNBC took a more cautious approach. The cable channel, which is popular with liberals, only chimed in halfway through Trump’s news conference, when he began taking questions from reporters. The network aired his comments for about two minutes before he cut out.

Singapore on Wednesday hanged a man for trafficking less than 3.5 pounds of marijuana, its second execution in three weeks for a crime that carries a much lighter sentence in most of the world.

“The death penalty is part of Singapore’s comprehensive harm prevention strategy, which targets both the supply and demand of drugs,” the country’s Central Narcotics Bureau said in a statement. rack confirmation of the execution. It gave the man’s age, 36, but did not identify him by name, as requested by his family, or provide details of his crime.

But court documents show that Muhammad Faizal Bin Mohd Shariff was convicted and sentenced to death in 2019 for possession of about 1.6 kilograms of cannabis. Last month, Singapore hanged a man convicted of conspiracy to traffic about two pounds of cannabis.

Human rights groups condemned both sentences as grossly excessive, but Singapore has long taken a tough stance on drugs and shows little flexibility.

Since 1975, the country has imposed the death penalty on people convicted of drug trafficking. In most cases, the death penalty is given for trafficking more than 500 grams of cannabis, 250 grams of methamphetamine, 30 grams of cocaine or 15 grams of heroin, according to the desk.

Most of the death row inmates in Singapore are tied to drug offences. Of the 54 people awaiting execution in Singapore, 51 are for drug offenses, said Kirsten Han, a spokeswoman for Transformative Justice Collective, which has campaigned for the abolition of the death penalty in Singapore. The remaining three are for murders.

Last year, Singapore executed 11 people for drug-related crimes. Only five other countries did, Ms Han said: China, Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia and Vietnam.

Before his sentencing, Mr. Faizal in court that he had intended to consume most of the cannabis himself, and only intended to sell a small portion. On Monday, he filed an appeal for a reduced life sentence, but an appeals court rejected it the next day. He was hanged 21 days after Singapore executed Tangaraju Suppiah for a similar crime.

While Southeast Asia used to be known for its harsh punishments for drug crimes, countries in the region have relaxed their stances in recent years. Malaysia has abolished the mandatory death penalty for drug-related offences. Thailand has legalized marijuana.

Death sentences related to drug offenses in Singapore have sparked protests from human rights groups. In 2021, protesters urged the country to halt the execution of a man convicted of heroin smuggling, arguing that he should be spared because he had a mental disability. He was executed in April 2022.

Opponents of Singapore’s drug policy also say it has disproportionately hurt marginalized ethnic minorities. “It is deeply concerning that 64.9 percent of death row inmates are of Malaysian origin,” while Malays make up only 14 percent of Singapore’s population. wrote M. Ravian international human rights lawyer who Mr. Faizal had represented.

The argument to abolish the death penalty for drug offenses has gained little support in Singapore.

“The public is still largely in favor of the death penalty,” Ms Han said, adding that the opposition is hesitant to address the issue. “It’s too much of a hot potato for them.”