ACTION 8 UPDATE: Execution date set for Kenneth Smith

This undated photo provided by Alabama Department of Corrections shows inmate Kenneth Eugene Smith, who was convicted in a 1988 murder-for-hire slaying of a preacher’s wife. Smith, 57, is scheduled to receive a lethal injection at a south Alabama prison on Thursday, Nov. 17, 2022. (Alabama Department of Corrections via AP).

ACTION 8 UPDATE: Gov. Kay Ivey has set an execution date for death row inmate Kenneth Eugene Smith.

Smith was sentenced to death for the 1988 capital murder of Elizabeth Dorlene Sennett in Colbert County. 

Ivey has set a 30-hour time frame for the execution to occur beginning at  12:00 a.m. on Thursday, January 25, 2024, and expiring at 6:00 a.m. on Friday, January 26,  2024.

The execution will take place at the William C. Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore. The tentative start time will be 6:00 p.m. on the 25th, barring any legal delays.

The state Department of Corrections tried to execute Smith by lethal injection in 2022 but called it off when the execution team could not get the required two intravenous lines connected to Smith.

Smith is scheduled to become the first death row inmate to be executed by nitrogen gas in Alabama. As Action 8 News has reported, a lawsuit has been filed to stop the execution on a claim that it is hostile to religion.