Alabama is set to execute a prisoner in January by nitrogen hypoxia, the first time that method of imposing the death penalty will be used in the U.S.
The nitrogen hypoxia method will be used to execute a man who was convicted of murder-for-hire.
Nitrogen hypoxia involves putting a mask on the prisoner and pumping in nitrogen, eventually leaving the subject deprived of oxygen and unable to keep breathing. While it is legal in Oklahoma, Mississippi and Alabama, it has not yet been used.
Between 2 a.m. on Jan. 25 and 6 a.m. on Jan. 26, nitrogen hypoxia will be used to execute Kenneth Smith, according to Alabama officials.
Governor Kay Ivey, a Republican, set the time frame this week.
Smith, 58, was one of two men hired in 1988 to kill Elizabeth Sennett. He was hired by the woman’s husband, preacher Charles Sennett. The husband killed himself in 1988 and Smith’s co-conspirator, John Parker, was executed by lethal injection in 2010.
The Alabama Supreme Court approved the use of nitrogen hypoxia to kill Smith on Nov. 1.
“Elizabeth Sennett’s family has waited an unconscionable 35 years to see justice served. … Though the wait has been far too long, I am grateful that our talented capital litigators have nearly gotten this case to the finish line,” Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall wrote on social media.
A 1989 conviction would have sent Smith to the electric chair, but an appeal overturned that conviction.
Smith was convicted a second time for Sennett’s death in 1996. He was sentenced to death by lethal injection, but his execution was slated for last year and was called off when prison personnel could not find veins to use before the midnight deadline to complete the procedure.
Since then, the law has been changed to allow the governor to set a time range for execution as opposed to setting a date with a midnight deadline.
Smith’s attorneys also filed an appeal, saying that a second try for lethal injection would constitute cruel and unusual punishment. The state then settled on nitrogen hypoxia as the method to use.
While Smith had requested the method as an alternative to lethal injection, his attorneys nevertheless filed a lawsuit in federal court Thursday to prevent his execution using the new method.
One attorney for Smith, Robert Grass, told the Associated Press that “we remain hopeful that those who review this case will see that a second attempt to execute Mr. Smith — this time with an experimental, never-before-used method and with a protocol that has never been fully disclosed to him or his counsel — is unwarranted and unjust.”
• Brad Matthews can be reached at bmatthews@washingtontimes.com.