Inmate set for nitrogen gas execution begs to meet with governor: ‘Do the right thing’

An Alabama death row inmate is set to become the seventh man executed in the state with the controversial method of nitrogen hypoxia.

Anthony Todd Boyd, 54, is being executed on Thursday, Oct. 23, for the 1993 murder of a man named Gregory Huguley, who was taped up and burned alive over a $200 cocaine debt, according to court documents.

In the days leading up to the execution, Boyd pleaded to meet with Republican Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey, saying in a taped message at a news conference this week that he’s innocent.

“Please come sit down and talk to me before this execution is carried out, before an innocent man is executed … and have a conversation with the guy that you deemed one of the worst of the worst,” he said, adding that he had nothing to do with the crime. “Do the right thing and stop this execution.”

Ivey’s office said in a statement that the governor “personally reviews” each execution and that process is “underway.”

“At this point, however, we have not seen any recent court filings disputing Mr. Boyd’s guilt in the horrific, burning-alive murder of Gregory Huguley,” the office said. “Nor have we received a clemency submission to such an effect. The governor’s execution-review process understandably does not include one-on-one meetings with inmates, but this inmate’s invitation to ‘sit down and talk’ delivered just hours before the scheduled execution is especially unworkable.”

If Boyd’s execution moves forward, he will become the 40th inmate executed in the U.S. in 2025, a figure that hasn’t been seen since 2012. At least five more executions are scheduled by the end of the year.

Here’s what you need to know about the execution, including more about the crime and the controversial nitrogen gas method being used.

When and where is the execution?

Anthony Todd Boyd’s execution is set for 6 p.m. CT on Thursday, Oct. 23, at the William C. Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, Alabama.

What was Anthony Todd Boyd convicted of?

On July 31, 1993, prosecutors said that Anthony Todd Boyd and three other men tracked down Gregory Huguley for an unpaid $200 cocaine debt in Anniston, Alabama.

They kidnapped Huguley at gunpoint, stopped to buy gasoline and went to a nearby baseball field, where prosecutors say the attackers made him lie down on a bench, prosecutors said. They then taped Boyd’s hands, feet and mouth before taping him to the bench, dousing him in gasoline, and lighting him on fire, they said.

The men then watched Huguley “burn for 10 to 15 minutes until the flames went out,” according to court records.

The other three men accused of the killing testified against Boyd. One of them, Quintay Cox, was able to plead guilty to a lesser charge of capital murder and get a lighter sentence in exchange for his testimony, according to archived news reports.

Shawn Ingram, whom prosecutors say is the one who poured the gas on Huguley and set the fire, also was convicted of capital murder and is on Alabama’s death row.

Boyd has always maintained that he was at a party at the time of the killing and was in tears after a jury found him guilty of capital murder in 1995. A slew of family and friends testified in Boyd’s favor, saying he was a good father and role model who helped neighborhood children with homework and coached them in youth basketball leagues.

Talking to members of the news media after the verdict, The Anniston Star reported that Boyd said: “I’ll maintain my innocence until the day I die.”

What is the execution method?

Boyd is set to be executed by the relatively new and controversial method of nitrogen gas, which involves strapping a mask on the face of inmates and depriving them of oxygen until they asphyxiate.

Alabama made history when it conducted the first execution by nitrogen gas in the U.S. in January 2024. Since then, the state has used the method on five other inmates despite objections from some in the Jewish community who argued that it hearkens back to Nazi gas chambers during the Holocaust.

Louisiana became the second state to use the method when it executed Jesse Hoffman in March 2025, and Arkansas became the fifth state to approve the method when Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed a law in March allowing its use. The Ohio and Nebraska state legislatures have introduced similar legislation this year.

Witness accounts from some of the Alabama executions describe “suffering, including conscious terror for several minutes, shaking, gasping, and other evidence of distress,” Louisiana Chief District Judge Shelly Dick wrote in an opinion that temporarily blocked Hoffman’s execution. The witnesses saw inmates “writhing” under their restraints, “vigorous convulsing and shaking for four minutes,” heaving, spitting, and a “conscious struggling for life,” she wrote.

Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall has defended the method as “constitutional and effective,” and Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill has argued that witness accounts from members of the news media are unreliable.

In response to the concerns, one Ohio official told lawmakers considering the method that nitrogen gas executions may very well be painful, according to reporting by the Ohio Capital Journal.

“The Constitution doesn’t guarantee a pain-free death,” said Lou Tobin, executive director of the Ohio Prosecuting Attorneys Association, the Journal reported. “We don’t want to cause them unnecessary pain. … But whatever they experience as part of an execution pales in comparison to the pain and suffering that they’ve inflicted on their victims.”

What is Anthony Todd Boyd arguing?

Boyd’s attorneys have been challenging the nitrogen gas execution method, arguing that if used in combination with his asthma and vertigo, he could survive the execution and be left in a state of suffering.

“The administration of pure nitrogen gas causes the prisoner to experience the extreme pain and terror of suffocation while still conscious, inflicting gratuitous suffering beyond what is constitutionally permitted,” according to a lawsuit filed by Boyd’s attorneys in federal court.

A judge rejected those arguments earlier this month, ruling that “the Eighth Amendment (of the U.S. Constitution) does not guarantee Boyd a painless death” but rather a death free of needless suffering.

“The Court does not doubt that a person consciously deprived of oxygen even for two minutes under the Protocol experiences discomfort, panic, and emotional distress,” wrote Chief U.S District Judge Emily Marks.

When is the next execution?

The next execution is that of Norman Mearle Grim in Florida for the 1998 rape and murder of his neighbor, a 41-year-old lawyer named Cynthia Campbell. It will be Florida’s 15th execution of the year, a record that’s nearly double the state’s previous highest annual executions of eight.

Amanda Lee Myers is a senior crime reporter who covers executions for USA TODAY. Follow her on X at @amandaleeusat.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Alabama man set for nitrogen gas execution begs to meet with governor