MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Lawyers for a spiritual adviser to an Alabama inmate scheduled to be executed with nitrogen gas next month said in a complaint Wednesday that restrictions on how close the adviser can get to the inmate in the death chamber are “hostile to religion.”
The Rev. Jeff Hood, who plans to enter the death chamber to serve Kenneth Eugene Smith, said the Alabama Department of Corrections asked him to sign a form acknowledging the risks and agreeing to stay 3 feet away from Smith's gas mask. . Hood, an opponent of the death penalty, said this shows there is a risk to witnesses attending the execution. He said the restrictions would also hinder his ability to serve Smith before he is put to death.
“They asked me to sign a waiver, which I think shows they are already concerned that things could go wrong,” Hood said in a telephone interview.
Smith's execution is believed to be the first in the country using nitrogen gas. The nitrogen is planned to be administered through the gas mask placed over Smith's nose and mouth while he is strapped to a stretcher in the death chamber normally used for lethal injections.
Hood's attorneys also argued in their complaint that Alabama's restrictions on how close he can get to Smith will “deny an inmate the touch of his chosen spiritual advisor at the most critical moment of his life: his death.”
Hood said he anointed Casey McWhorter, an Alabama inmate, as he was strapped to the gurney before his execution last month. He said he planned to do the same with Smith. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled last year that states must heed the wishes of death row inmates who want their pastors to pray out loud and even touch them during their executions.
A spokesperson for the Alabama Department of Corrections declined to comment on the form, citing ongoing litigation.
Nitrogen makes up about 78% of the air breathed by humans and is harmless when inhaled with proper oxygen levels. Under the proposed execution method, pure nitrogen would replace the prisoner's breathing air, depriving the prisoner of oxygen needed to maintain bodily functions and killing him. Although proponents of the new method have theorized that it would be painless, opponents have compared it to human experiments.
The form, which Hood signed to attend Smith's execution, outlined the risk of nitrogen gas. It stated that in the “very unlikely event that the hose supplying the breathing gas to the mask were to become detached, an area of free-flowing nitrogen gas could be created, creating a small risk area (approximately 60 cm) for the outflow.”
It also warned that overpressure could cause a small area of nitrogen to displace oxygen in the area around the prisoner's face or head.
Smith was one of two men convicted in the 1988 murder of Elizabeth Sennett in northwest Alabama. The state Department of Corrections attempted to execute Smith by lethal injection last year, but stopped it when the execution team failed to connect the required two intravenous lines to Smith.
Hood said that Smith's first execution attempt “failed terribly” and that “they now have him lined up to be experimented on again.”
Three states – Alabama, Oklahoma and Mississippi – have approved nitrogen hypoxia as an alternative method of execution.