The Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday against an Alabama inmate’s eleventh-hour request to halt his execution by nitrogen hypoxia, the first time the method would be used, calling it cruel and unusual punishment.  

Kenneth Eugene Smith, who was convicted of stabbing a woman to death in 1988 in a murder-for-hire scheme, will be executed Thursday at William C. Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, Alabama, reportedly the only prison in the state to have an execution chamber. Smith survived the traditional lethal injection procedure in November 2022.