Alabama man to be executed by nitrogen gas

Washington: An Alabama Death Row inmate convicted of murdering a man over a drug debt by setting him alight is to be executed by nitrogen gas in the southern US state on Thursday.

Anthony Boyd, 54, who has steadfastly maintained his innocence, was sentenced to death in 1995 for the murder two years earlier of 32-year-old Gregory Huguley.

His execution is scheduled to be carried out at 6:00 pm Central Time (2300 GMT) at a state prison in the town of Atmore.

Prosecutors said at his trial that Boyd and three other men abducted Huguley at gunpoint because he allegedly failed to pay for $200 of cocaine.

Huguley was driven to a baseball field, bound with duct tape, doused with gasoline and set on fire.

Boyd was convicted largely on the testimony of a co-defendant, Quintay Cox, who was spared the death penalty.

There have been 39 executions in the United States this year, the most since 2013, when 39 inmates were also put to death.

Florida has carried out the most executions with 14, followed by Texas with five and South Carolina and Alabama with four.

Thirty-three of this year's executions have been carried out by lethal injection, two by firing squad and four by nitrogen hypoxia, which involves pumping nitrogen gas into a face mask, causing the prisoner to suffocate.

The use of nitrogen gas as a method of capital punishment has been denounced by United Nations experts as cruel and inhumane.

The death penalty has been abolished in 23 of the 50 US states, while three others -- California, Oregon and Pennsylvania -- have moratoriums in place.

President Donald Trump is a proponent of capital punishment and, on his first day in office, called for an expansion of its use "for the vilest crimes."