Supreme Court Rules in Favor of Death Row Inmates' Execution Method

The US Supreme Court has rejected Alabama's attorney general's request to review an 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals decision regarding inmate Kenneth Eugene Smith, who argues he should be put to death by nitrogen hypoxia when he is ultimately executed. Alabama has authorized nitrogen hypoxia as an execution method but no state has attempted to use the untested method to put an inmate to death. Smith has an ongoing lawsuit seeking to prevent the state from making a second attempt to execute him by lethal injection.