The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals will hear oral arguments in Kenneth Eugene Smith's fight to avoid the nation’s first execution using a new method that his lawyers criticize as cruel and experimental.
A federal court filing Friday shows the oral arguments will be made by phone Friday January 19.
That hearing is set to take place one week before Smith's scheduled execution by nitrogen hypoxia on Jan. 25.Â
Earlier this week, a federal judge in Alabama cleared the way for Smith's execution by nitrogen gas to go forward.
The question of whether the execution can ultimately proceed could end up before the U.S. Supreme Court.
Smith, now 58, was one of two men convicted of the murder-for-hire of a Colbert County preacher’s wife that rocked Alabama in 1988. Prosecutors said Smith and another man were each paid $1,000 to kill Elizabeth Sennett on behalf of her husband, who was deeply in debt and wanted to collect on insurance.
Smith survived a prior attempt to execute him. The Alabama Department of Corrections tried to give Smith a lethal injection in 2022 but called it off when authorities couldn’t connect two intravenous lines.
Kenneth Eugene Smith
