Supreme Court declines to block nitrogen gas execution in Alabama

The Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected a bid to prevent the state of Alabama from executing a prisoner through the use of nitrogen gas.

The state attempted to execute Kenneth Eugene Smith via nitrogen hypoxia in 2022, but abandoned the effort after struggling to secure IV access, according to The Hill. Alabama hopes to execute him via nitrogen gas, which would mark the first such use of that method in the U.S.

The Supreme Court's Wednesday order declined Smith's request to pause the execution, though the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, whom he has also asked to intervene, has not yet made its decision.

Smith was first convicted in 1989 as part of a plot by Pastor Charles Sennett to murder his wife, Elizabeth. Sennett paid Smith and his associate, John Parker, $1,000 each to kill her. 

Earlier this month, Smith's attorneys had suggested that the nitrogen gas method would violate his constitutional rights and requested that he die by firing squad. U.S. District Judge R. Austin Huffaker rejected that request.

Ben Whedon is an editor and reporter for Just the News. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter.