In this lecture Professor Yorke will discuss the Complaint to the UN Special Procedure mechanisms which he and Dr Joel Zivot filed on behalf of Kenneth Smith formerly under sentence of death in the State of Alabama. This led to four UN Special Rapporteurs authoring a Joint-Communication submitted to the US government and the alarm of the imminent dangers of the execution were subsequently raised by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. Unfortunately, the UN’s call for humanity to be expressed in this case was ignored. On 25th January 2024 Alabama executed Mr Smith through the first officially recorded use of nitrogen gas inhalation, and subsequently more US states have adopted legislation and protocols to put inmates to death through this new method. Even though eyewitness accounts of Mr Smith’s execution reported bodily trauma consistent with torture, inhumane and degrading punishment, increasing retentionist US states have shown there is an appetite to subject more death row inmates to this agonising ending of their life. This lecture will explore this development and explain how this new execution method violates international human rights law.   

Our guest lecturer Jon Yorke is a Professor of Human Rights and Director of the Centre for Human Rights, at Birmingham City University, UK with a Ph.D from the University of Warwick. As an expert in international human rights law, Professor Yorke has worked as an advisor for the United Nations, the European Union, and several governments including the United Kingdom, Spain, Myanmar, and Gambia. 

Professor Yorke’s work for the Universal Periodic Review project at Birmingham City University was shortlisted for the Times Higher Education Award 2021 for international Collaboration of the year, and his co-leadership of the Birmingham City University American Internship Programme was shortlisted for the Queen’s Anniversary Prize in 2012.

Professor Yorke has acted in human rights cases in the United States, Sudan, and the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, and has submitted amicus curiae briefs in death penalty cases.