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<\/p>\nA killer who was due to be put to death a year ago is in the unique position of being able to explain what it feels like to be executed \u2013 because he survived the lethal injection attempt.<\/p>\n
Kenneth Smith suffered excruciating pain in the attempt last November after spending a third of a century on Death Row in the United States. The convicted murderer had been taken from his cell to the execution chamber at the jail in Atmore, Alabama. But hours later he was still alive as the prison staff completely cocked up their attempts at administering a fatal dose.<\/p>\n
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Speaking to the Daily Mail nearly 12 months later from his cell, where he\u2019s waiting for the next execution attempt, Smith, 58, described his pain as staff struggled and failed to attach two IV lines to him, before they ran out of time to kill him when the death warrant expired.<\/p>\n
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In the US, the \u201cdouble jeopardy\u201d rule means you can\u2019t be tried twice for the same crime \u2013 but there\u2019s no such ban on the authorities trying to execute someone more than once, so Smith is going through a lengthy appeals process to prevent the state attempting to kill him all over again.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s currently lined up to be executed in January via a method that hasn\u2019t been attempted before. The authorities want him to breathe in pure nitrogen until he suffocates.<\/p>\n
But his legal team are fighting that plan, claiming that it would constitute a \u201ccruel and unusual punishment\u201d \u2013 something that is not allowed under the US constitution. They argue that it\u2019s unclear whether being killed via the process called \u201cnitrogen hypoxia\u201d is painless, and they reckon Smith is being used as a human guinea pig.<\/p>\n
His legal team is also claiming that his horrible ordeal last year when the executioners completely mucked up their attempts at killing him also constitutes cruelty.<\/p>\n
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Looking back at that awful day, Smith told the Mail: \u201cI\u2019ve tried to keep it out of my mind for the past year but I've been reliving this s**t for the past week.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been sick to my stomach and not eaten. And I\u2019ve been struggling with depression and nightmares \u2013 I\u2019m in pretty bad shape.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a weird twist that might help his appeal not to be executed a second time, Smith also recounted a conversation he had with one of last year\u2019s executioners.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cHe was trying to comfort me and we got into this bizarre conversation. He said: \u2018Oh, you know, man, if you got to go, this is the way to go.\u2019 Lethal injection, he said, is painless. And he said that gas is suffocation and that nobody knows what is going to happen. I've not been able to get that out of my head.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Back in 1988, the dad-of-four \u2013 who was then 22 \u2013 admitted murdering Elizabeth Sennett, 45. He and a bloke called John Parker were paid the equivalent of \u00a3800 each by her hubby Charles, a pastor who was having an affair with another woman, to kill her so he could collect insurance money.<\/p>\n
During last year\u2019s shambles, Smith recalls that at one point one of the executioners shouted at him: \u201cYou can\u2019t feel that,\u201d convinced he had been successfully anaesthetised.<\/p>\n
The prisoner added: \u201cI kept telling them, \u2018Call the f***ing judge. My case number is 2:22-CV-497. Somebody in this f***ing room call the judge or my lawyer.\u2019 But nobody did.\u201d<\/p>\n
And the repeated attempts to jab him eventually became a farce \u2013 with one of the men even asking the prisoner to squeeze his hand to help them find a vein.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am f***ed if I am going to participate in my own execution,\u201d he said recently.<\/p>\n
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