Alabama asks Supreme Court to approve SECOND nitrogen-gas execution of workplace murderer after outcry over first one that featured horrifying spasms and lasted 22 minutes

Alabama has asked the Supreme Court to approve the state's second nitrogen-gas execution less than a month after Kenneth Smith was violently executed. 

Alabama's attorney general on Wednesday asked the state's Supreme Court to authorize a second execution by nitrogen hypoxia, after the state became the first to kill a prisoner using the new method last month.

On January 25, Kenneth Eugene Smith writhed and shook in agony as he was slowly suffocated for 22 minutes before he died. 

Despite the clearly agonizing and torturous death, Alabama's Attorney General Steve Marshall vowed to keep using nitrogen gas to execute inmates.

Marshall filed a motion asking the court to allow the Alabama Department of Corrections to execute Alan Eugene Miller, who has been on death row since 2000 for murdering two co-workers and a former co-worker at separate locations in 1999. If approved, Governor Kay Ivey would set a date.

Alabama's Attorney General Steve Marshall filed a motion asking the court to allow the Alabama Department of Corrections to execute Alan Eugene Miller (pictured) who has been on death row since 2000

Kenneth Eugene Smith was sentenced to death in 1996 after admitting the murder-for-hire killing of a pastor's wife who was beaten and stabbed in 1988. On January 25, he became the first person in US history to be executed with nitrogen gas 

Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall (pictured) vowed to continue using nitrogen hypoxia for the state's executions, noting that 43 Alabama death row prisoners have opted to be executed via nitrogen hypoxia over lethal injection

Miller had previously been assigned an execution date in 2022, but it was delayed by last-minute legal action, according to the filing.

'As the State of Alabama is prepared to carry out the execution of Miller's sentence by means of nitrogen hypoxia, it is once more the appropriate time for the execution of his sentence,' the filing said.

Alabama has also offered to aid other states seeking to carry out executions using nitrogen gas, a method Alabama called 'the most painless and humane method of execution known to man' but one that human rights groups have condemned as cruel and torturous.  

What occurred last night was textbook,' Marshall said after Smith's execution, contrasting allegations from many, including Smith's spiritual advisor who said it was 'torture' and the 'worst thing' he had ever seen. 

'When they turned the nitrogen on, he began to convulse, he popped up on the gurney over and over again, he shook the whole gurney,' spiritual advisor Jeff Hood, who was in the chamber, said immediately after the execution.

Marshall said of the 165 inmates on Alabama's death row, 43 prisoners have opted to be executed via nitrogen hypoxia over lethal injection when their time comes.

'We'll definitely have more nitrogen hypoxia executions in Alabama,' he concluded.

In filings before the execution, the state argued that 'the experts agree that nitrogen hypoxia is painless because it causes unconsciousness in seconds.'

Alabama's lethal injection chamber at Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, Ala., is pictured in this Oct. 7, 2002 file photo, where Smith was executed last month 

Marshall reportedly conceded that this was not exactly how it unfolded Thursday night as it took longer than anticipated, but said it was difficult to discern the timing due to difficulty knowing when the nitrogen began to flow.

'It's interesting to see the attorney general say that everything went consistent with plans that they laid out,' Hedgepeth told MSNBC.

'We saw him begin violently shaking, thrashing against the straps that held him down.

'This was the fifth execution that I've witnessed in Alabama, and I've never seen such a violent execution or a violent reaction to the means of execution.'