(AP) MONTGOMERY, Alabama Alabama wants to be the first state to put a prisoner to death by forcing him to breathe Alabama wants to be the 1st state only pure nitrogen.
On Friday, the 58-year-old death row inmate Kenneth Eugene Smith’s legal team petitioned the Alabama Supreme Court to establish a date for his execution.
According to the court document, Alabama intends to execute him using nitrogen hypoxia, a form of execution that is legal in three states but has never been employed.
Nitrogen hypoxia is brought on by denying the prisoner of oxygen and requiring them to breathe only nitrogen, which results in their death.
Humans breathe 78% nitrogen, which is safe to breathe when combined with oxygen. Although supporters of the new technique claim it will be painless, detractors have compared it to human experimentation.
Due to a lack of medications for performing lethal injections, Alabama allowed nitrogen hypoxia in 2018, although up to this point, the state has not sought to utilize it to carry out a death sentence.
Mississippi and Oklahoma have also approved nitrogen hypoxia but haven’t used it yet. Lethal injections were resumed by the state last month.
A new round of legal disputes regarding the validity of the technique is anticipated in response to the revelation that Alabama is prepared to deploy nitrogen hypoxia.
Alabama has a history of “failed and flawed executions and execution attempts,” according to the Equal Justice Initiative.
Alabama wants to be the 1st state
A legal advocacy group that has worked on death penalty problems, and “experimenting with a never-before-used method is a terrible idea.”
Angie Setzer, a senior attorney with the Equal Justice Initiative, stated that “no state in the nation has execute. Alabama wants to be the 1st state.
A person using nitrogen hypoxia and Alabama is in no position to experiment with a completely unproven and unused method for execution.”
Last year, Alabama attempted to put Smith to death by lethal injection, but they aborted the execution due to difficulties placing an IV in his veins.
It was the state’s third such occurrence since 2018 and its second within two months of being unable to execute an inmate. Gov.
Kay Ivey imposed a moratorium on executions the day following Smith’s botched lethal injection operation in order to undertake an internal assessment of the protocols.
One of the two men found guilty in the 1988 murder-for-hire killing of a preacher’s wife was Smith. The attorney general of Alabama claimed that it is time to execute the death sentence.
Attorney General Steve Marshall
Said in a statement on Friday that it was “a travesty” that Kenneth Smith had been spared the death penalty for almost 35 years after being found guilty of the brutal murder-for-hire killing of Elizabeth Sennett.
Alabama has been working on the nitrogen hypoxia execution method for a while, but hasn’t said anything about its objectives.
The specifics of how the execution will be carried out were not detailed in the attorney general’s court brief. Last month, John Hamm, the commissioner of corrections, told reporters that a protocol was almost finished.
Smith is among the Alabama inmates who have argee that they should be let to die through nitrogen hypoxia instead of being execute lethal injection.
On March 18, 1988, Sennett’s body
Was discover in the house she and her husband shared on Coon Dog Cemetery Road in Colbert County, Alabama wants to be the 1st state.
According to the prosecution, Smith was one of two men who received $1,000 each to kill Sennett on her husband’s behalf because he was heavily indebted and wished to recover insurance money.
The killing and the identities of those responsible for it shook the little village in north Alabama. 2010 saw the execution of the other man convicted in the murder.
According to court records, Charles Sennett, the victim’s husband and a preacher for the Church of Christ, committed suicide when the focus of the inquiry turned to him as a potential suspect.
Is attempting to become the first state to execute a prisoner by forcing him to breathe pure nitrogen. Smith’s lawyer, Robert Grass, declined to comment on Friday.
On Friday, the 58-year-old death row inmate Kenneth Eugene Smith’s legal team petitioned the Alabama Supreme Court to establish a date for his execution.
According to the court document, Alabama intends to execute him using nitrogen hypoxia, a form of execution that is legal in three states but has never been employ.
Alabama wants to be the 1st state
Nitrogen hypoxia is brought on by denying the prisoner of oxygen and requiring them to breathe only nitrogen, which results in their death. Alabama wants to be the 1st state.
Humans breathe 78% nitrogen, which is safe to breathe when combined with oxygen. Although supporters of the new technique claim it will be painless, detractors have compared it to human experimentation.
Due to a lack of medications for performing lethal injections, Alabama allowed nitrogen hypoxia in 2018, although up to this point, the state has not sought to utilize it to carry out a death sentence.
Mississippi and Oklahoma have also approved nitrogen hypoxia but haven’t used it yet. Lethal injections were resume by the state last month.
A new round of legal disputes regarding the validity of the technique is anticipate in response. The revelation that Alabama is prepare to deploy nitrogen hypoxia.
Alabama has a history of “failed and flawed executions and execution attempts,” according to the Equal Justice Initiative,.
A legal advocacy group that has work on death penalty problems. Experimenting with a never-before-use method is a terrible idea.”
Angie Setzer, a senior attorney with the Equal Justice Initiative. Stat that no state in the nation has execute a person using nitrogen hypoxia.
Alabama is in no position to experiment with a completely unproven and unused method for execution.”
Last year, Alabama attempt to put Smith to death by lethal injection. But they abort the execution due to difficulties placing an IV in his veins.
It was the state’s their such occurrence since 2018 and its second with. Two months of being unable to execute an inmate.
Gov. Kay Ivey impose a moratorium on executions the day follow. Smith’s botch lethal injection operation. in order to undertake an internal assessment of the protocols.
