Alabama Executes Inmate With Nitrogen Gas After Supreme Court Refuses to Intervene

Alabama became the first state to execute a death row inmate, who was accused of killing a woman in a 1988 murder-for-hire plot, using nitrogen gas on Thursday after the U.S. Supreme Court refused to intervene. Officials said Kenneth Eugene Smith, 58, was pronounced dead at 8:25 p.m. ET at an Alabama prison after he breathed pure nitrogen gas through a face mask, causing oxygen deprivation. It marked the first time a new execution method has been used in the United States since the introduction of lethal injection, now the most commonly used method, in 1982. The execution took about 22 minutes, and Mr. Smith appeared to remain conscious for several minutes. For at least two minutes, he appeared to shake and writhe on the gurney, sometimes pulling against the restraints. That was followed by several minutes of heavy breathing until breathing was no longer perceptible....