16 January 2024 :
January 12, 2024. Alabama
Kenneth Smith, scheduled for nitrogen execution, loses appeal to Alabama Supreme Court
The Alabama Supreme Court on Friday turned down an appeal by Smith, who is scheduled to become the 1st person to die by Alabama’s new nitrogen hypoxia method of execution in 2 weeks.
The state tried to execute Smith by lethal injection in November but called the procedure off because of a failure to start the intravenous lines.
Since then, the state has announced it is ready to use the nitrogen method, which the Legislature authorized in 2018 but which no state has ever used. The state’s protocol says the inmate will breathe only nitrogen through a mask, with no life-sustaining oxygen.
In Smith’s latest state court appeal, his lawyers claim that an attempt to execute Smith a second time constituted cruel and unusual punishment.
The appeal was previously rejected in circuit court and by the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals.
On Friday, 8 of the 9 justices agreed with the decision to deny Smith’s request to review his claim.
Friday’s decision by the court was the 2nd to go against Smith this week. On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Austin Huffaker Jr., denied Smith’s request for a preliminary injunction in the case to halt the execution.
Smith was twice convicted by juries for the murder-for-hire of Elizabeth Dorlene Sennett in her home in Colbert County in north Alabama in 1988. Sennett, a pastor’s wife, was beaten and stabbed repeatedly. Smith, who was hired by the victim’s husband to commit the slaying, confessed to his role in the crime and has been on death row since 1996.
Smith is set to be executed sometime between 2 a.m. on Thursday, January 25, and 6 a.m. on Friday, January 26.
