Alabama is set to bring in a controversial new method of executing prisoners on death row, despite the issues surrounding it. The new method involves starving a prisoner of oxygen and forcing them to breathe in pure nitrogen. Attorney General Steve Marshall has asked the state Supreme Court to allow death row inmate Kenneth Eugene Smith to trial it. Smith was convicted as part of a murder-for-hire plot in 1996 and requested to be executed by nitrogen hypoxia. Prisoners are reportedly sedated before being gassed and usually have to wear a face mask to prevent staff from being exposed to toxins. Problems with the method include the possibility of inmates holding their breath and the risk of a long death if the gas is diluted. Oklahoma and Mississippi have also approved the use of this method, although none of the three states have implemented it yet.