Alabama judge greenlights hitman's experimental execution: 'not guaranteed a painless death'

Kenneth Smith, 58, is scheduled to be executed by Alabama's new nitrogen hypoxia method on Jan. 25 despite his attorney's arguments that being a test subject would violate his rights.

Smith is not guaranteed a painless death. Christina Coulter is a U.S. and World reporter for Fox News Digital. Email story tips to christina.coulter@fox.com.

In November 2022, Smith was nearly executed by lethal injection, but he managed to live another day after executioners bungled the procedure. His attorneys claimed in legal filings that putting him back into the state's execution chamber would constitute double jeopardy, and that to test the new execution method on the inmate would violate his constitutional rights. 

But U.S. District Court Judge R. Austin Huffaker rejected their request for a preliminary injunction on his scheduled January 25 execution – he acknowledged that the method is new, but noted that the lethal injection process was also new once.