A death row inmate in Alabama will be the first to be executed using a new method early next year after he survived a botched, lethal injection execution.
Kenneth Eugene Smith’s execution will take place on January 25 through nitrogen gas.
The untested method was requested by the inmate as an alternative to lethal injection, Alabama Governor Kay Ivey’s spokesperson said.
Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall cleared the way for Smith’s execution last week citing how victim Elizabeth Sennett’s family “waited an unconscionable 35 years to see justice served.”
Smith and a partner were paid $1,000 to kill Sennett by her pastor husband for insurance money in 1988. The husband took his own life and Smith’s co-defendant was put to death in 2010.
The convict’s attorney, Robert Grass, sought a stay of the execution arguing that his client would be “a test subject for this novel and experimental method.”
“The never-before-used method is unwarranted – and the protocol has never been fully disclosed to him or his counsel,” Grass said.
“We remain hopeful that those who review this case will see how this method is unjust.”
