Execution of Alabama prisoner called off because of lethal injection problems

Prison staff were unable to find a suitable vein to inject Kenneth Eugene Smith before the midnight deadline

Alabama's execution of a man convicted in the 1988 murder-for-hire slaying of a preacher's wife was called off on Thursday just before the midnight deadline because state officials could not find a suitable vein to inject the lethal drugs.

Alabama department of corrections commissioner John Hamm said prison staff tried for about an hour to get the two required intravenous lines connected to Kenneth Eugene Smith, 57.