The Supreme Court sided with an Alabama inmate on death row who is challenging the state’s decision to execute him via lethal injection, with the highest court in the land allowing his lawsuit to stand.
Kenneth Smith, a convicted killer who was caught in a 1988 murder-for-hire plan, sued Alabama, claiming that the plan to kill him via lethal injection would violate his protections against cruel and unusual punishment. Months after filing the suit, Smith survived a botched execution attempt, which was ultimately called off after officials could not properly set the IV line.
Smith is seeking to die by nitrogen gas when he is eventually executed, and the Supreme Court issued a ruling on Monday that denied Alabama’s appeal to let Smith’s lawsuit against the state go forward, attempting to block it from putting him to death by lethal injection. It is an argument he won at the lower court level.
Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito dissented to the decision. The Supreme Court ruled earlier this term, in a 6 to 3 decision, to allow the execution of Smith to go forward. Alabama was seeking to have the decision reversed, noting that while the state’s legislature has approved the use of nitrogen gas for executions, it has not finalized all protocols for its application.
Smith and an accomplice were convicted of the 1988 murder of Elizabeth Dorlene Sennett, with the two being hired by Sennett’s husband for the killing.
The decision comes after the state paused its executions last year, following a number of reports of botched executions by lethal injection. Republicans in the state called earlier this year for executions to resume, following the completion of a review of the state’s policies and practices.