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Alabama death row inmate Anthony Boyd professed his innocence in the chilling final words before he was put to death via nitrogen gas. 'I didn't kill anybody. I didn't participate in killing anybody,' protested Boyd before his execution. 'There can be no justice until we change this system… Let's get it.' The 54-year-old was convicted in 1995 for helping to kidnap and burn alive 32-year-old George Huguley. He and three others brutally murdered the man in 1993 because he owed them $200 for cocaine. The jury found that Boyd participated in binding and taping Huguley to a park bench at an Alabama baseball field. Another member of the group doused him in gasoline and set him on fire. Prosecutors acknowledged that Boyd didn't actually set the fire that killed Huguley, according to USA Today. However, the other three men testified against Boyd. The man who prosecutors said poured the gasoline and set the fire was also convicted of capitol murder and is on death row. Boyd has maintained that he was at a party at the time of the killing. In his final statement he said that his execution was motivated by 'revenge.' After more than 30 years at William C. Holman Correctional Facility, Boyd was finally strapped to a table and put to death using nitrogen, after his request to be killed by firing squad was denied. Witnesses said that Boyd's execution appeared to last longer than usual. The inmate was fitted with an face mask through which the nitrogen was pumped to starve his body of oxygen, . Moments into the execution, he clenched his fists, raised his head, and began to shake, said witnesses. He raised his legs off of the bed by several inches. Boyd convulsed and heaved for 15 minutes before falling completely still, according to the New York Times. He was pronounced dead at 6.33pm. Executers cannot reveal how long the nitrogen was running before his heart stopped beating. Boyd begged Alabama Governor Kay Irvey to meet with him 'before an innocent man is killed.' She declined and released a statement following his death. 'His victim’s family has finally received justice,' she said, in part, according to USA Today. The Supreme Court voted against intervention, but in dissent Justice Sonia Sotomayor called the method a 'cruel form of execution.' 'Boyd asks for the barest form of mercy: to die by firing squad, which would kill him in seconds, rather than by a tortuous suffocation lasting up to four minutes,' she said. Boyd was the seventh inmate in Alabama to be killed with the use of nitrogen gas. The state made history by becoming the first to use this method of execution in January 2024. Nitrogen suffocation was designed to be a more humane practice than lethal injection, which was the most widely used execution method for many years. His spiritual advisor Rev. Jeff Hood said that Boyd appeared to be conscious and fighting for his life for 19 minutes during the execution. 'It's torture,' Hood told the outlet. 'We shouldn't do this to anybody. We are better than this. We are better than suffocating people to death.' Boyd had chosen the method of nitrogen gas over lethal injected when inmates were given a month to choose in 2018. But he's since challenged the use, arguing that it was cruel. Protestors in Alabama campaigned against the death penalty the day before Boyd's execution. The Execution Intervention Project advocated against his death. On his first day in office Donald Trump told the Justice Department to encourage prosecutors to seek the death penalty before capital crimes. Boyd's execution was the 40th in the United States this year, according to Death Penalty Info. Six more are scheduled to take place. This year has seen the most executions since 2012 when 43 inmates were put to death.
