ATMORE, Ala. — Preparations were underway Thursday to put an Alabama man to death using nitrogen gas — the first execution of its kind in the nation — as legal challenges were waged in the final hours attempting to halt the untested method.
Kenneth Eugene Smith, 58, is set to die by nitrogen hypoxia, in which he will be strapped to a gurney and made to breathe nitrogen gas through a mask apparatus, depriving him of oxygen. The execution is set for 6 p.m. local time at the William C. Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore.
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But such timing can be uncertain, as the U.S. Supreme Court could intervene, and this is particularly the case in Alabama, where a series of problematic executions using lethal injection prompted officials to pause the practice in 2022 and reevaluate.
Smith, who was convicted for his role in a 1988 murder-for-hire slaying of a preacher’s wife, is already a rare example of a person who survived an execution. An attempt to put him to death by lethal injection in 2022 failed when prison staff at Atmore tried unsuccessfully to insert needles into a suitable vein.
“It makes it even worse that I suffered so much last year,” Smith told NBC News in a phone interview from prison in December. “And I’m still dealing with that currently. So the fact that they’ve got me lined up to be the first with gas is really terrifying.”
The experience left him with post-traumatic stress disorder and bouts of vomiting, and his lawyers have said in court filings they worry he may vomit while he is in the death chamber with the mask on and choke.
As a precaution, prison officials said they would give Smith his final meal of solid food by 10 a.m. and only clear liquids throughout the day.
Smith’s spiritual adviser, the Rev. Jeff Hood, said his last meal consisted of a Waffle House order: T-bone steak, hash browns and scrambled eggs…
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