Federal Judge Allows Alabama to Conduct Nation’s First Execution Using Nitrogen Gas

A federal judge has ruled Alabama can proceed with the planned execution of an inmate using nitrogen gas later this month, despite objections from the man’s lawyers that the method is “cruel and experimental.” In his ruling, filed on Jan. 10, Alabama District Judge R. Austin Huffaker rejected convicted murderer Kenneth Eugene Smith’s request for a preliminary injunction to stop his scheduled execution set for a thirty-hour time frame between Jan. 25 and Jan. 26. The ruling has given the state a green light to proceed, with what could become the nation’s first execution using nitrogen hypoxia. Kenneth Eugene Smith was one of two men convicted for the 1988 murder of a preacher’s wife. Prosecutors successfully argued the two men were each paid $1,000 to kill Elizabeth Sennett on behalf of her husband, who was deeply in debt and wanted to collect on insurance. John Forrest Parker, the other convicted man, was executed for the crime in 2010....