Executions paused after third failure

Gov. Kay Ivey sought a pause in executions and ordered a “top-to-bottom” review of the state's capital punishment system Monday after an unprecedented third failed lethal injection. The move followed the uncompleted execution Thursday of Kenneth Eugene Smith, which was the state's second such instance of being unable to put an inmate to death in the past two months and its third since 2018. The state completed an execution in July, but only after a three-hour delay caused at least partly by the same problem with starting an IV line.

The Death Penalty Information Center, an anti-deathpenalty group, said no state other than Alabama has had to halt an execution in progress since 2017, when Ohio halted Alva Campbell's lethal injection because workers couldn't find a vein.