"Alabama Inmate Kenneth Eugene Smith Becomes First to Die by Nitrogen Gas Execution"

Alabama's 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals rejected convicted killer Kenneth Eugene Smith’s request to stop his scheduled execution by nitrogen gas, ruling that the experimental method does not violate the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment. Smith's legal team plans to appeal to the US Supreme Court in a last-ditch effort to halt the execution, which is set to be the country’s first inmate put to death by nitrogen gas. The method has been criticized as too experimental, with concerns about its effects, as Smith and another man were convicted of a murder-for-hire plot in 1988.