GB News presenter Nana Akua has called for the death penalty to return to the UK, as a heated row was sparked on air with lawyer Carol Kilgore.
This follows the widespread criticism of an execution in Alabama, where the world's first killing by nitrogen gas took place on Thursday.
Kenneth Eugene Smith was convicted in 1989 after murdering Elizabeth Sennett in a kill-for-hire.
Smith had spent decades on death row at Holman Correctional Facility, before being served his execution on January 25. Smith's fellow hitman John Forrest Parker was executed for the crime in 2010.
Kenneth Smith was executed using nitrogen gas in a world first
Alabama Department of Corrections / GB News
The execution has since come under fire after it was reported that it took 25 minutes for Smith to pass away.
One witness told the BBC that they had "never seen a condemned inmate thrash in the way that Kenneth Smith reacted to the nitrogen gas".
The question of capital punishment has also emerged in Britain after Valdo Calocane was sentenced to a hospital order for killing students Barnaby Webber, Grace O'Malley-Kumar and Caretaker Ian Coates in Nottingham.
During sentencing, he was told he would be detained "very probably for the rest of [his] life".
Mr Webber's mother Emma said "true justice has not been served" and her "devastated family" had been "let down".
She told Nottinghamshire Police: "We trusted in our system, foolishly as it turned out. You have blood on your hands."
Nana Akua says she 'doesn't want to pay' to keep criminals in prison
GB News
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- Historic US nitrogen gas execution takes TWENTY TWO MINUTES as Kenneth Eugene Smith's last words revealed
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Discussing the prospect of the death penalty in Britain, Nana Akua told GB News: "I think the death penalty should be brought back in this country. I'm actually sick to death of hearing people say that they can be rehabilitated.
"Let's take the case in Nottingham. He definitely killed these three people. In the end it was diminished responsibility and manslaughter. They say that he had paranoid schizophrenia, he didn't take his medication."
Nana asked: "Where does the responsibility for the person committing these crimes come in? In my view he'd be the first one that I would have executed if the death penalty were available in this country."
American Lawyer Carol Kilgore fought back in disagreement with Nana, claiming: "Studies have shown that the death penalty that's used in America hasn't actually had any deterrent effect on crime. It's a barbaric practice.
"So if that's what you're after, you think having the death penalty in Britain is going to stop people from murdering?"
Valdo Calocane was sentenced to a hospital order for killing three people in Nottingham
Nottinghamshire Police / PA
Nana hit back at Kilgore: "You talk about the death penalty being barbaric, but then you say it's actually crueler to keep people alive if they've committed a crime. So where where are we with this? Are you trying to be cruel or not?
"The death penalty is actually a much kinder way, because you remove these people from the situation and frankly, I don't want to pay for them. I don't want to pay for these people."
She continued: "If somebody can be rehabilitated, maybe there's a case and each one should be case by case. And there are many cases where most of these people can't.
"And I think seriously, we need to start looking at that because it costs a fortune to keep them alive."
