Free Republic

ATMORE, Ala. (WAFF) - The State of Alabama executed death row inmate Kenneth Smith on Thursday at the Holman Correctional Facility. The 58-year-old Smith was put to death with nitrogen gas, the first time that method was used in the United States. Smith is one of two men convicted in the 1988 murder-for-hire slaying of Elizabeth Sennett. Prosecutors said he and the other man were each paid $1,000 to kill Sennett on behalf of her pastor husband, who was deeply in debt and wanted to collect on insurance. Sennett, 45, was found dead March 18, 1988, in her home with...

The Supreme Court has denied death row killer Kenneth Eugene Smith's last minute request for a stay in execution. Smith will be executed tomorrow in Atmore, Alabama, with nitrogen hypoxia. It will be the first execution of its kind in the US and first known nitrogen execution in the world. He had begged the court for mercy, citing experts concerns over the method despite previously requesting it.

Attorneys for the spiritual adviser of a soon-to-be executed inmate filed a lawsuit Wednesday alleging that the restrictions placed upon the adviser due to the method of execution are "hostile to religion." Officials with the Alabama Department of Corrections instructed the Rev. Jeff Hood that it could be dangerous to his health when he stands by Kenneth Eugene Smith in the execution chamber, according to a report. Smith is slated to be the first inmate in Alabama to be put to death via nitrogen gas, and Hood purportedly was asked to sign a waiver recognizing the risks that could arise...

Alabama's Supreme Court on Wednesday cleared the state to execute an inmate using nitrogen gas. The state's attorney general’s request for an execution warrant for Kenneth Eugene Smith was granted in a 6-2 decision by an all-Republican court. Last year, the Alabama Department of Corrections called off the execution of Smith when the people responsible for connecting two intravenous lines to him for lethal injection could not do so. While the ruling moves the state closer to becoming the first to attempt execution with nitrogen gas, there is likely to be additional legal dispute on the matter. Alabama joins Oklahoma...

Alabama told a federal judge that it could soon be ready to use a new, untried execution method called nitrogen hypoxia to carry out a death sentence. The disclosure came Monday at a court hearing over inmate Alan Miller’s request to block his scheduled Sept. 22 execution by lethal injection. Miller maintains that prison staff lost paperwork he returned in 2018 requesting nitrogen hypoxia, an execution method that the state has authorized but never used. […] Nitrogen hypoxia is a proposed execution method in which death would be caused by forcing the inmate to breathe only nitrogen, thereby depriving him...