Alabama's attorney general is asking the state's supreme court to allow the first-ever use of nitrogen hypoxia, a controversial and untested method, in an execution.
In a Friday court filing, Attorney General Steve Marshall requested the court to authorize a date for the execution of Kenneth Eugene Smith, who was convicted in 1996 in a murder for hire.
Smith's execution was previously scheduled for Nov. 17, 2022. However, he had opposed being executed by lethal injection, and petitioned in court for nitrogen hypoxia to be used instead.
