Death Row inmates to be executed in Alabama, Florida

MIAMI: An Alabama man who murdered his girlfriend is to be put to death by nitrogen gas on Tuesday, one of at least three executions to be carried out in the United States this week.

Gregory Hunt, 65, was convicted of the 1988 rape and murder of 32-year-old Karen Lane, whom he had been dating for a month. Hunt is to be executed by nitrogen hypoxia, which involves pumping nitrogen gas into a facemask, causing the prisoner to suffocate.

It will be the fifth execution in the southern US state using nitrogen gas, which has been denounced by UN experts as cruel and inhumane. Only one other US state, Louisiana, has used this method.