Alabama Inmate Execution To Be First Death By Nitrogen Gas

This will be the first execution using nitrogen gas and only the second time in U.S. history that a state would attempt to execute an inmate twice after initially failing.

The U.S. Supreme Court declined to halt the execution of Alabama death row inmate Kenneth Smith.

Smith was sentenced to death for his role in the 1988 murder in which he was hired by Charles Sennett to kill his wife Elizabeth.

Alabama recently aborted an effort to execute him by lethal injection after officials failed to set an intravenous line before the execution warrant expired.

Smith’s attorneys asked the Supreme Court to pause the execution and argued trying to execute him twice would amount to cruel and unusual punishment, violating the eighth and 14th amendments. However, the justices declined Smith’s requests and gave Alabama the green light.

Smith is now due to be executed during a 30-hour window starting Thursday.

This will be the first execution using nitrogen gas and only the second time in U.S. history that a state would attempt to execute an inmate twice after initially failing.