by Reverend Hillary Taylor
States are looking for new ways to execute people, and now they’re implicating South Carolinians. Whether it be a firing squad, the electric chair, or suffocation by nitrogen gas, South Carolina has its hand in calling for each. In our name, they are forsaking one of God’s most sacred principles, “Thou shalt not kill." For the sake of our souls, we must stop them.
On August 22nd, I joined faith leaders and advocates to deliver over 4,000 petitions to Allegro Industries, a manufacturer based in Piedmont, South Carolina that produced the first gas mask used to kill a man with nitrogen suffocation. The petitions urge Allegro to speak up against its products being used for death.
In response to this peaceful action, Allegro reacted dramatically — by locking the doors and calling the police.
Since roughly 2016, thanks to pressure from human rights activists, every major pharmaceutical company has barred the use of its drugs in executions. The move largely halted federal and state executions as governments struggled to get their hands on lethal injection drugs. South Carolina, for one, paused executions in 2013 and has yet to restart them.
These corporate actions have saved lives, and as a spiritual advisor to many on death row in our state, I am grateful. The pause in executions has allowed the men I guide to understand they are more than the worst thing they’ve done and experience the power of redemption. Each is a testimony for how God can change people. Yet, despite the remarkable transformations I have witnessed, the state is hellbent on blood justice.
Last year, legislators planned to restart lethal injections by passing a secrecy law that would prevent any disclosure from identifying the corporations that provide execution drugs to the state. And just last month, the state’s highest court ruled that the firing squad and electric chair, which state officials are also looking to use, do not constitute cruel and unusual punishment.
The lives of 32 men are at risk here, and others who are similarly situated around the country are under the same threat.
In January, Alabama became the first state to suffocate a man to death with the novel execution mechanism nitrogen hypoxia. To do so, they used a gas mask produced by Allegro Industries. While top nitrogen suppliers prohibited Alabama from using their products and thousands of advocates urged it to do the same, Allegro remained silent.
Allegro heard the call to moral leadership, and did not answer. This silence betrayed our faith communities, and betrayed the company’s commitment to produce safety equipment for customers. What is safe about a gas mask used to end a human life?
The execution of Kenneth Smith by nitrogen suffocation delivered on the torture that many feared. Nevertheless, elected officials in Alabama morbidly celebrated its success and invited other states to learn from its example. Oklahoma and Mississippi have now both authorized nitrogen suffocation as an execution method, and legislatures in Nebraska, Ohio, and Louisiana are actively considering it.
This means that Allegro could soon become the standard mask supplier for gas executions.
As Alabama plans for its second execution by nitrogen suffocation in September, it is the most crucial time for Allegro and its corporate parents, Walter Technologies and Onex Corporation, to take a stand. By committing not to supply its masks for executions, it would be joining a powerful tradition of corporate action against the death penalty, as well as a sacred tradition of social holiness.
Spiritual communities all across South Carolina oppose the vengeful violence of the death penalty. We offer our neighbors at Allegro Industries the grace that executions deny those convicted, and call on the company to abandon their complicity and stand with us.
Join us in calling on Allegro Industries to bar the use of their gas masks for death: worthrises.org/gasexecutions