Supreme Court allows Alabama to carry out first-ever execution by nitrogen gas of death row inmate Kenneth Smith
CBSN
The Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to stop Alabama from executing an inmate by nitrogen hypoxia, a controversial and untested method that has prompted legal pushback and a rebuke from the United Nations. Kenneth Eugene Smith is scheduled to be the first person in the United States to be put to death with nitrogen gas.
The justices rejected arguments by Smith's lawyers that it would be unconstitutional for the state to attempt a second execution after a failed lethal injection in 2022.
Smith also has asked the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to block the execution. That court has not yet issued its ruling.
This story previously aired on Sept. 15, 2018. News report: Today, in a 5-1 decision, the California State Supreme Court ruled that Rodney Alcala did not receive a fair trial. Juror: We, the jury, find the defendant, Rodney James Alcala, guilty of the crime of murder in the first degree. Victim Robin C. Samsoe… "I wanna kill, I wanna kill, I wanna see blood and gore and guts and veins in my teeth. Eat dead burnt bodies. I mean, kill, kill, kill, kill." Jury member [in court]: We, the jury … determine that the penalty to be imposed upon defendant, Rodney James Alcala, to be death. D.A. Cyrus Vance to reporters: For both families, who had lost all hope that these cases would ever be solved, the pleas by Rodney Alcala, and today's sentencing brings closure to painful chapters in their lives.
A new law aims to strengthen reporting requirements for technology companies to combat online predators seeking to exploit children. One dad told CBS News that he hopes the law will save children like his son, who died by suicide after becoming ensnared in a "sextortion" scheme when he was 17 years old.