Alabama inmate Kenneth Smith put to death in first U.S. nitrogen gas execution

 An Alabama man was executed Thursday evening becoming the first person in the United States to die via nitrogen gas, according to Gov. Kay Ivey.

Kenneth Smith, 58, who was sentenced to death for his role in the 1988 murder-for-hire plot of a preacher's wife, was originally set to be executed in November 2022 with a lethal injection, but officials were unable to locate a vein and were forced to call it off.

"The execution was lawfully carried out by nitrogen hypoxia, the method previously requested by Mr. Smith as an alternative to lethal injection. At long last, Mr. Smith got what he asked for, and this case can finally be put to rest," the governor said in a statement Thursday evening.

"I pray that Elizabeth Sennett's family can receive closure after all these years dealing with that great loss," Ivey said.

He and his attorneys had argued that execution by nitrogen gas would constitute cruel and unusual punishment under the 8th Amendment and that he "is suffering mentally and physically from the posttraumatic stress" of the botched execution attempt, documents show.

Smith was one of three people in Alabama whose executions were botched in 2022, according to the Death Penalty Information Center, a non-profit that provides data and analysis on capital punishment.

The Supreme Court rejected a previous appeal Wednesday evening, allowing Alabama officials to proceed with the execution.

Alabama is one of three states, including Mississippi and Oklahoma, that allows nitrogen gas to be used as a method of execution, but it has never been carried out before.