ATMORE, Alabama — As witnesses including five news reporters watched through a window, Kenneth Eugene Smith, who was convicted and sentenced to die in the 1988 murder-for-hire slaying of Elizabeth Sennett, convulsed on a gurney as Alabama carried out the nation’s first execution using nitrogen gas. Critics who had worried the new execution method would […]
A man put to death using nitrogen gas shook and convulsed for minutes on the gurney as Alabama carried out a first-of-its-kind execution. Breathing through a nitrogen-filled face mask that deprived him of oxygen, 58-year-old convicted killer Kenneth Eugene Smith convulsed in seizure-like spasms for at least two minutes of the 22-minute execution by nitrogen […]
Alabama executed a convicted murderer with nitrogen gas on Thursday, putting him to death with a new method that once again put the US at the forefront of the debate over capital punishment. The state said the method would be humane, but critics called it cruel and experimental. Officials said Kenneth Eugene Smith, 58, was […]
Alabama carried out the first-ever execution by nitrogen gas Thursday, killing 58-year-old Kenneth Smith just over a year after he survived a failed lethal injection. In Smith’s final days, his lawyers had asked the Supreme Court to block the execution. They argued that the second attempt to kill Smith — with an untested mechanism, before he had exhausted […]
Alabama has carried out the first execution of a death row inmate in the US using nitrogen gas, an untested procedure which the prisoner’s lawyers had argued amounted to a form of cruel and unusual punishment banned under the US constitution. Kenneth Smith, 58, was pronounced dead at 8.25pm on Thursday evening at an Alabama […]
The US Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that Alabama can proceed with using nitrogen gas to put a man to death, refusing to block what would be the nation’s first execution by a new method since 1982. The decision clears the way for the state to carry out the execution of Kenneth Eugene Smith — […]
ATMORE, Alabama — The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Thursday that Alabama can proceed with using nitrogen gas to put a man to death, refusing to block what would be the nation’s first execution by a new method since 1982. Alabama plans to put a face mask on 58-year-old Kenneth Eugene Smith and replace the air […]
There is no guarantee Donald Trump will follow the rules as he takes the stand in E. Jean Carroll’s defamation trial. Arizona’s now-former GOP chairman said he was threatened with an incriminating tape if he didn’t resign. Plus, a rat-shaped hole is bringing chaos to a Chicago street. Here’s what to know today. Trump to […]
Alabama will attempt to put an inmate to death with nitrogen gas on Thursday night, a never-before-used execution method that the state claims will be humane but critics call cruel and experimental. Kenneth Eugene Smith, a 58-year-old convicted killer whose 2022 lethal injection was called off at the last minute because authorities could not connect […]
The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to intervene in Thursday’s execution of Alabama convict Kenneth Smith, who’s slated to become the first person in the country put to death with nitrogen gas. No opinion was issued by justices who decided against reviewing Smith’s case the day before his scheduled execution. The U.S. 11th Circuit Court […]
Alabama can proceed with its plan to conduct the first execution in the U.S. with nitrogen gas after a federal appeals court wasn’t convinced Wednesday that the method violates the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment. Barring any last-minute court or state intervention, Kenneth Eugene Smith is set to die as soon as Thursday […]
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Alabama is preparing to use a new method of execution: nitrogen gas. Kenneth Eugene Smith, who survived the state’s previous attempt to put him to death by lethal injection in 2022, is scheduled to be put to death Thursday by nitrogen hypoxia. If carried out, it would the first new method […]