Headline on CNN: Alabama sets date for execution of a death row inmate by nitrogen gas, a method never used in any state. Alabama has repeatedly screwed up its attempts to execute prisoners by lethal injection. The victim of the last botched execution, Kenneth Eugene Smith, requested to be executed with nitrogen gas. This is, as Smith’s lawyer described it, “an experimental, never-before-used method” for execution.

The article on CNN reports that according to the Death Penalty Information Center “Death by nitrogen hypoxia deprives the brain and body of oxygen,” and this is assumed to be a more humane, or, rather, a more reliable technique for execution. So Alabama, usually the most backward of former Confederate states, is now leading the way.