Alabama Governor Kay Ivey is seeking a pause in executions and ordering a "top-to-bottom" review of the state's capital punishment system. The move occurred after an unprecedented third failed lethal injection. Ivey issued a statement saying she had both asked the state attorney general to withdraw motions seeking execution dates for two inmates. She also asked that the prison system undertake a full review of the state's execution process. The move came just days after the uncompleted execution of Kenneth Eugene Smith was the state's second such instance of being unable to kill an inmate in the past two months.
An earlier incident occurred when Alabama officials called off the lethal injection of death row inmate Alan Miller. He was convicted in a 1999 workplace shooting where three people were killed. That execution was called off because of time concerns and trouble accessing the inmate's veins. The DOC says the state halted the scheduled execution after they determined they could not get the lethal injection underway before midnight, like Kenneth Smith. Miller’s last-minute reprieve came nearly three hours after a divided U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way for the execution to begin.