Alabama Gets Go-Ahead to Carry Out Nation’s First Nitrogen Gas Execution
‘ABSOLUTELY TERRIFIED’
Lawyers for Kenneth Smith, who survived a botched attempt to execute him by lethal injection last year, have argued the state is trying to make a “test subject” out of him.
A federal judge on Wednesday cleared the way for a death row inmate in Alabama to be executed with nitrogen gas later this month, sweeping aside critics’ arguments that the untested method is cruel and inhumane. U.S. District Judge R. Austin Huffaker rejected inmate Kenneth Smith’s request for an injunction, according to the Associated Press. Smith’s attorneys, who have accused the state of trying to make a “test subject” out of him, are expected to appeal the decision, which could wind its way to the U.S. Supreme Court ahead of his Jan. 25 execution date. Smith, 58, was convicted over his role in a 1988 murder-for-hire plot that resulted in the death of Elizabeth Dorlene Sennett, a pastor’s wife. He survived a botched attempt by the state to execute him by lethal injection last year. “I was strapped down, couldn’t catch my breath,” he recalled to NPR affiliate KRCU earlier this week. “I was shaking like a leaf. I was absolutely alone in a room full of people, and not one of them tried to help me at all, and I was crying out for help.” He said he is “absolutely terrified” anticipating his upcoming execution.
