The Alabama Supreme Court has authorized the execution of a second inmate by nitrogen gas, months after the state became the first state to put a person to death with the previously untested method.
An Alabama death row inmate has filed a lawsuit that challenges the constitutionality of nitrogen gas executions, arguing that the first person in the nation put to death by that method shook violently for several minutes in “a human experiment that officials botched miserably.”
Kenneth Smith’s execution by nitrogen hypoxia marked the first time that a new execution method has been used in the U.S. since lethal injection was introduced in 1982.
The U.S. Supreme Court will not halt the execution of Kenneth Smith, who is scheduled to be the first death row inmate in the U.S. to be put to death by nitrogen hypoxia.
The Rome-based Sant’Egidio Community has lobbied for decades to abolish the death penalty around the world.
An attorney for an Alabama inmate set to be the nation’s first person ever put to death by nitrogen gas asked a federal appeals court Friday to block the upcoming execution using the “untested methods.”
Alabama will be allowed to put an inmate to death with nitrogen gas later this month, a federal judge ruled Wednesday.
Gov. Kay Ivey has set an execution date for death row inmate Kenneth Eugene Smith.
A federal judge heard arguments about the humaneness and risks of execution by nitrogen gas as he weighs whether to let Alabama attempt the nation’s first use of the method.
Rev. Jeff Hood says restrictions would interfere with his ability to minister to Kenneth Smith before he is put to death by nitrogen gas.
