ACTION ALERT - Stop Alabama Experimental Execution

Today, the Alabama Supreme Court granted the state’s request to reschedule the state-sponsored execution of Kenneth Eugene Smith by nitrogen hypoxia, according to Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall.  On November 17, 2022, the state of Alabama failed in its attempted lethal injection execution of Kenneth Smith, poking him ad cutting him for hours before sending him back to his cell alive. This left him severely physically scarred and deeply traumatized.

Smith would be the first inmate executed by nitrogen hypoxia, a method the Alabama Legislature approved in 2018 but that no state has ever used, under a heavily redacted protocol. Deborah Denno, a death penalty expert at Fordham Law School, said that unlike lethal injection and electrocution, which have been used for decades, “experts could only speculate about how a state might conduct a nitrogen hypoxia execution.” She said the filed Alabama protocol does not provide answers because of its vagueness and heavy redactions.”

Smith was twice convicted by juries for the murder-for-hire of Elizabeth Sennett in her home in Colbert County in 1988. Sennett was a pastor’s wife who was beaten and stabbed. Smith confessed to his role in the crime. Smith has been on death row since 1996. A jury recommended by vote of 11 to 1 that he should receive a sentence of life without parole for his role in Sennett’s death, but a judge overrode that verdict and sentenced him to execution. “If Smith’s trial had occurred today, he would not be eligible for execution,” a federal appeals court wrote of Smith’s case in 2021.

In November 2022, after three botched state-sponsored execution attempts in four months, Alabama Governor Kay Ivey announced a moratorium on executions, calling for a “top-to-bottom” review of the process. What apparently resulted from that review is an experimental process that has never been used in any state-sponsored execution in the United States. John Palombi, assistant federal defender for the Middle District of Alabama, said the state needs to disclose more information about how nitrogen hypoxia will work before using it.

“Yesterday, the Alabama Supreme Court, over the dissents of Chief Justice Parker and Justice Cook, authorized Mr. Smith’s execution based on a heavily redacted protocol that was adopted in secrecy,” Palombi said. “In the interest of transparency and safety, when a state chooses to kill one of its citizens using an untried method, the Governor should postpone setting an execution date for Mr. Smith until a less redacted protocol is produced and the constitutionality of this protocol can be litigated.”

We ask our supporters and advocates to take action today to stop the execution of Kenneth Smith. Please visit the Action Network and add your name and signature to the petition addressed to Governor Ivey, asking her to stay this execution. We also seek to demand that the State of Alabama delay all executions to allow for a thorough study of its capital punishment process and consider the serious objections raised as to how it administers the death penalty.

Sign the petition to Governor Ivey here -->> Stop the execution of Kenneth Smith