Alabama may become the first state to execute inmates by inhaling pure nitrogen, a method of execution that three states allow but have never used.
Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall’s office asked the state Supreme Court in a court filing Friday to set a date for the execution of 58-year-old Kenneth Eugene Smith. The filing revealed Alabama intended to kill him by nitrogen hypoxia.
Smith was one of two men convicted in the 1988 murder-for-hire murder of a preacher’s wife.
“It is a travesty that Kenneth Smith has been able to avoid the death penalty for nearly 35 years after being convicted of the brutal murder-for-hire of an innocent woman, Elizabeth Sennett,” Marshall said in a statement.
Nitrogen hypoxia is caused by forcing prisoners to breathe only nitrogen, which deprives them of oxygen and kills them. The air that humans breathe includes 78% nitrogen but is harmless when inhaled with oxygen.
Alabama allowed nitrogen hypoxia in 2018 during a shortage of the drug used to carry out lethal injections, but the state does not use the method to carry out executions. Oklahoma and Mississippi also allow nitrogen hypoxia as a method of execution but do not use it.
Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall asked the state Supreme Court to set an execution date.AP
Supporters of the new execution method claim it is painless, but opponents argue it is a form of human experimentation. New revelations that Alabama is preparing to use nitrogen hypoxia are expected to spark new legal disputes over its constitutionality.
The Equal Justice Initiative, a legal advocacy group that opposes the death penalty, said Alabama has a history of “failed and flawed executions and attempted executions” and “experimenting with methods that have never been used before is a terrible idea.”
“No state in the country has executed someone using nitrogen hypoxia and Alabama is in no position to experiment with a completely unproven and unused method of executing someone,” said Equal Justice Initiative senior attorney Angie Setzer.
Kenneth Eugene Smith was convicted in the 1988 murder-for-hire of a pastor’s wife.e Alabama Department of Corrections
Alabama tried to execute Smith by lethal injection last year but failed to do so because of problems with inserting an IV into his vein. This is the second time in two months and the third since 2018 that the state has failed to execute an inmate. Republican Gov. Kay Ivey announced a day after Smith’s botched execution that executions would be paused to allow for an internal review of the lethal injection procedure.
Lethal injections in Alabama resumed last month.
The state has been working to develop a method of implementing nitrogen hypoxia for several years but has not disclosed many details about its plans. Corrections Commissioner John Hamm told reporters last month that a protocol was nearing completion.
The attorney general’s court filing does not reveal details of how the execution will be carried out.
Smith and several other Alabama inmates who tried to prevent their executions by lethal injection have argued that they should be allowed to die by nitrogen hypoxia.
Elizabeth Sennett was found dead in the home she shared with her husband in Colbert County on March 18, 1988. Prosecutors said Smith was one of two men who were each paid $1,000 to kill Sennett on behalf of her husband, who was in deep debt and wanted to collect money. insurance.
The victim’s husband and a pastor at Christ Church, Charles Sennett, killed himself when the investigation began looking at him as a possible suspect, according to court documents. Another man convicted of the murder was executed in 2010.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
