Advocates call Alabama execution an ‘avoidable disaster’

ATMORE, Alabama — Defenders of a condemned inmate in Alabama are calling his execution an “avoidable disaster.” For 13 minutes after he was sedated to avoid an unconstitutionally painful death, Ronald Bert Smith Jr. was seen coughing, gasping and moving. Smith’s legal team said these movements Thursday night show “he was not anesthetized at any point during the agonizingly long procedure.” Alabama’s Corrections Commissioner Jeff Dunn disputes that Smith