Alabama Death Row Inmate Was Reportedly Subjected To Pain And Torture During Botched Execution

Attorneys wrote in a court filing that Alabama prison staff strapped inmate Kenneth Eugene Smith to a death chamber gurney despite a court order in place at the time blocking the execution from taking place.

On Friday Smith's lawyers claimed that during the “botched” execution attempt earlier this month, the state violated the U.S. Constitution, court orders and its own lethal injection protocol, reported the Associated Press. The inmate's attorneys have asked a federal judge to forbid the state from making a second attempt to execute him. They said that Smith was already “subjected to ever-escalating levels of pain and torture” on Nov. 17 night when he was to be executed.

Attorneys for Smith wrote in the complaint filed in federal court that defendants’ treatment of Smith "does not fall within society’s standards for a constitutional execution." According to them, the "botched execution was terrifying and extremely painful" for the inmate. The lawsuit is also seeking monetary damages apart from asking for an injunction to block Alabama from “making a second attempt to execute Mr. Smith.”

Last week, Alabama Governor Kay Ivey announced a temporary pause in executions to review the state’s capital punishment system. He cited concerns for victims’ families that death sentences were delayed, reported ABC News.

As for Smith, he was to be put to death by lethal injection for the murder-for-hire killing of Elizabeth Dorlene Sennett in 1988. Jail officials said that they cancelled his execution that night after they were unable to establish IV access. They had to do so within the 100-minute window between the court clearing the way for it to start and a midnight deadline.

Smith’s lawyers said that he was strapped to the death chamber gurney at about 8 p.m. This happened even though a stay was issued by the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals at 7:59 p.m. He was not informed about the stay and had no way to communicate with his lawyer or family as he lay strapped to the gurney, his legal team said. According to the court filing, the stay was lifted by the U.S. Supreme Court around 10. 20 p.m. It was around that time that the execution team started trying to establish IV access.

WVTM13 reported that the state has blamed late court action for the execution being halted.

His attorneys wrote that the inmate was jabbed with needles many times in his hands, arms, neck and collarbone region “well past the point at which the executioners should have known that it was not reasonably possible to access a vein." Lawyers said that the prison staff also used a large gauge needle to try to establish a line through a blood vessel beneath Smith's collarbone, but he did not comply with a request to turn his head. Then a deputy warden held his head in "both his hands, torqued it to the side." The execution team left the chamber and the inmate after many failed attempts.