Kenneth Smith's attorney claims he went through extreme 'levels of pain and torture' during botched execution
MONTGOMER, ALABAMA: Kenneth Eugene Smith, convicted in the 1988 murder-for-hire slaying of a preacher's wife, has gone through immense physical and mental suffering in the first execution attempt, claimed his attorney on Friday, November 25. This happened despite a court order that had blocked the execution from taking place. The attorney in his court filing claimed that the inmate was also subjected to numerous needle jabs, which included his neck and collarbone region as another official held on to his head.
The execution attempt was carried out earlier this month, where Smith’s attorney appealed to a federal judge to forbid the state from going ahead with a second execution attempt. He mentions that the guilty was already "subjected to ever-escalating levels of pain and torture" as the authority failed to execute him in their first attempt. "Defendants' treatment of Mr. Smith does not fall within society's standards for a constitutional execution. The botched execution was terrifying and extremely painful for Mr. Smith," read the complaint filed in federal court by Smith’s attorney.
READ MORE
Camilla Francisquini: Baby girl murdered by her own father laid to rest as cops hunt killer dad
According to the lawsuit, the attorney claim that the state has violated the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment while seeking monetary damages and appealing for a ban by the Alabama state from "making a second attempt to execute Mr. Smith." On Monday, November 29, the Alabama Department of Corrections refused to publicly respond to Smith's account of the aborted execution, referring that the department "cannot comment on ongoing litigation," reported CBS News.
Last week, Alabama Governor Kay Ivey announced a "temporary pause in executions" in order to review the state’s capital punishment process. The decision came amid rising concerns for victim’s families that death sentences were delayed. Ivey said, "For the sake of the victims and their families, we've got to get this right."
Smith was scheduled to be executed by lethal injection on November 17 for the 1988 murder-for-hire killing of Elizabeth Dorlene Sennett. As per prison officials, the execution was called off after they failed to establish IV access within a 100-minute window between the court clearing the way for it to start and a midnight deadline as per the protocol.
However, the lawsuit claims otherwise. "The execution continued on in defiance of the Eleventh Circuit's stay, with Mr. Smith remaining strapped to a gurney until nearly midnight,” read the filing by the attorney, as per the report.
After several attempts to establish a line through a blood vessel beneath the collarbone, and refusal by Smith to turn his head, a deputy warden then allegedly held “Smith's head in both his hands, torqued it to the side, saying, 'Kenny, this is for your own good.'"
Alabama state has executed 70 inmates since 1976 and at least 170 prisoners are on death row.