MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Lawyers for a spiritual adviser to an Alabama inmate scheduled to be executed with nitrogen gas next month said in a complaint filed Wednesday that restrictions on how close the adviser can get to the inmate in the death chamber are “hostile to religion.”
The Rev. Jeff Hood, who plans to enter the death chamber to minister to Kenneth Eugene Smith, said the Alabama Department of Corrections asked him to sign a form acknowledging the risks and agreeing to stay 3 feet (0.9 meters) away from Smith’s gas mask. Hood, a death penalty opponent, said that shows there is a risk to witnesses attending the execution. He said the restrictions would also interfere with his ability to minister to Smith before he is put to death.
“They’ve asked me to sign a waiver, which to me speaks to the fact that they’re already concerned that things could go wrong,” Hood said in a telephone interview.
Smith’s execution would be the nation’s first using nitrogen gas. The nitrogen is planned be administered through the gas mask placed over Smith’s nose and mouth while he is strapped to a gurney in the death chamber normally used for lethal injections.
Hood’s lawyers also argued in their complaint that Alabama’s restrictions on how close he can get to Smith will “deny a prisoner his chosen spiritual advisor’s touch at the most critical juncture of his life: his death.”
Hood said he anointed Alabama inmate Casey McWhorter as he was strapped to the gurney before his execution last month. He said he planned to do the same with Smith. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled last year that states must accommodate the wishes of death row inmates who want to have their pastors pray aloud and even touch them during their executions.
An Alabama Department of Corrections spokesperson declined to comment on the form, citing ongoing litigation.
Nitrogen makes up approximately 78% of the air inhaled by humans and is harmless when inhaled with proper levels of oxygen….
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