Alabama to put inmate to death with never-before-used execution method

Protesters gather at the state capitol building in Montgomery, Alabama to ask Governor Kay Ivey to stop the planned execution of Kenneth Eugene Smith (Mickey Welsh/The Montgomery Advertiser via AP)

Alabama will attempt to put an inmate to death with nitrogen gas on Thursday night, a never-before-used execution method that the state claims will be humane but critics call cruel and experimental.

Kenneth Eugene Smith, a 58-year-old convicted killer whose 2022 lethal injection was called off at the last minute because authorities could not connect an IV line, is scheduled to be executed at an Alabama prison.