For the second time in three months, Alabama officials halted an execution because corrections officials couldn't find a vein into which they could inject the lethal drugs.
The prisoner, Kenneth Eugene Smith, 57, was scheduled to be executed Thursday night after his appeals to the Supreme Court were rejected. As the Associated Press notes, part of Smith's appeals involved Alabama's recent problems actually executing prisoners with intravenous drugs. In September, the execution of Alan Miller, also 57, was halted for the same reason—the Alabama Department of Corrections' execution team was not able to secure IV access in time by the midnight deadline.
