Alabama fails to execute condemned inmate for third time in recent years

The state of Alabama this week failed for the third time in recent years in an attempt to execute a condemned inmate in Montgomery.

Officials late on Thursday were unable to resolve problems with the intravenous drug lines intended to administer a lethal injection to condemned murderer Kenneth Eugene Smith. 

It’s the third such failure in the state in the past four years. The state in September of this year called off the execution of Alan Miller, who was convicted in 1999 of killing three men; in 2018 it also nixed the execution of Doyle Hamm. In both cases issues with the intravenous lines prevented the execution. 

Miller is still alive and attempting to negotiate a settlement with Alabama; Hamm died of natural causes in prison. 

It is not known if the state has set a re-scheduled execution date for Smith.