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[theking]

‘I’m not ready, brother’: US man to be put to death months after botched execution attempt
Kenneth Smith, to be executed in Alabama by untested gas method, tells Guardian of nightmares from failed lethal injection

Nearly 14 months after surviving state's attempt to put him to death by lethal injection, inmate Kenneth Eugene Smith at the Holman Correctional Facility in Alabama will be subjected to another execution attempt. The prison authorities will be putting Smith to death on Thursday (Jan 25) by nitrogen hypoxia.

Ahead of the fateful event, Smith remains terrified, saying he has nightmares thinking about his death.

“I am not ready for that. Not in no kind of way. I’m just not ready, brother,” Smith told The Guardian.

“All I had to do was walk into the room in the dream for it to be overwhelming. I was absolutely terrified. It kept coming up," added Smith, referring to the first execution attempt.

As the second round approaches, Smith says he is "sick in his stomach" and finds himself vomiting most days.

“I dream that they’re coming to get me. They haven’t given me a chance to heal. I’m still suffering from the first execution and now we’re doing this again. They won’t let me even have post-traumatic stress disorder – you know, this is ongoing stress disorder,” he added.

How will Smith be executed?
Smith will be taken to an execution chamber on Thursday where he will be strapped to the gurney. According to court documents, the state will place a mask on him to deliver nitrogen.

The "Type-C full facepiece respirator-type face mask" will cut off Smith's oxygen supply and replace it with nitrogen. This will cause him to die due to lack of oxygen. Notably, the gas will be delivered for at least 15 minutes or "five minutes following a flatline indication on the Electrocardiog ram (EKG)".

Who is Kenneth Smith?
Smith, 58, is a murderer-for-hire who was sentenced to death for the 1988 killing of a preacher's wife.

Smith found himself facing nitrogen hypoxia after Alabama botched his initial execution attempt in November 2022. The lethal injection failed due to multiple futile attempts to establish an intravenous line, leaving him as one of only two individuals in the US to survive an execution attempt.

Smith's attorneys have argued that in 2020, the American Veterinary Medical Association in its euthanasia guidelines cleared nitrogen hypoxia only for pigs. For other mammals, it said, nitrogen hypoxia could create an "anoxic environment that is distressing for some species."