An Alabama judge has ruled that convicted murderer Kenneth Eugene Smith will become the first person to face death due to nitrogen hypoxia later this month, the newspaper reported. fox news digital.
Mr Smith's legal team tried unsuccessfully to stop the proceedings. Smith was sentenced to death in 2022 for the 1998 murder of a preacher's wife. The preacher, Rev. Charles Sennett Sr., hired Smith and John Forrest Parker to murder his wife. The two were promised $1,000 for each murder by Sennett.
This is not the first time Mr. Smith has faced the death penalty. In 2022, the state attempted to give Smith a lethal injection, but the operation failed. The report notes that Smith's lawyers argued in legal filings that returning Smith to the state's death chamber would pose double jeopardy and that it would be against his constitutional rights to try a new form of execution. He pointed out that he said it would be a violation of his rights.
However, U.S. District Judge R. Austin Huffaker rejected the request. He dismissed the argument that nitrogen hypoxia is new and continued that lethal injections were once great.
Smith's lawyers tried to convey the theoretical risks of the new method, but the judge ruled that those risks were not unconstitutional.
Huffaker went on to add, “Mr. Smith is not guaranteed a painless death.”[o]In this record, Smith does not show, the court cannot conclude that the Protocol imposes cruel and unusual punishment and is constitutionally ineffective under the current legal framework. ”
NBC News report Alabama's new execution method involved placing a respirator-style face mask over Smith's nose and mouth and replacing the oxygen with nitrogen to suffocate him. Alabama is just one of three states that have legalized this method of execution, the other two being Mississippi and Oklahoma.
Professor Huffaker added that there was no evidence to suggest that death due to nitrogen hypoxia was “substantially likely to cause additional suffering for Smith in the immediate or prolonged period of death”.
Smith's attorney also pointed out that the gas mask would prevent him from praying out loud or making final statements before he was executed. But the Alabama Attorney General's Office said those concerns are speculative.
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