Eyes across the world are on Alabama as the state prepares to be the first in the world to conduct an execution using nitrogen gas.

Kenneth Eugene Smith, 58, is set to die by nitrogen hypoxia—or suffocation on nitrogen gas—sometime between 2 a.m. on Thursday, January 25, and 6 a.m. on Friday, January 26. The execution will take place at William C. Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, just miles from the Florida border. It’s the only prison in Alabama with an execution chamber.

The prison sits adjacent to G.K. Fountain Correctional Facility, where prison officials direct media to work on execution nights. Typically, members of the media gather in a building on prison property until the execution proceeds.

But last week, the ADOC said in an email, there will be an overflow area set up in a field by the media center in anticipation of national—and international—interest. Only credentialed media members are allowed. Just five journalists – including one from AL.com – are permitted inside to witness the execution.

An Amnesty International researcher asked Gov. Kay Ivey to call off the planned execution.

“While Amnesty International is opposed to the death penalty in all cases, there are specifics about Kenneth Smith’s circumstances that make it even more disturbing that Alabama is willing to carry out this execution,” said Justin Mazzola.

“This execution will be carried out by nitrogen gas, a method not previously used, on a man who was subjected to a cruel botched execution attempt just 14 months ago. The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights highlighted how this new untested method could be extremely painful, result in a botched execution, and could amount to torture or other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment, thereby violating international human rights treaties that the U.S. has ratified. It is high time the death penalty was abolished.”

The group also highlighted that Smith was sentenced to death under judicial override—a judge sentenced Smith to death over the wishes of a jury—a practice now outlawed in Alabama and across the United States.

Judicial override was outlawed in the state years ago, but not made retroactive.

“It’s disturbing that the state of Alabama is willing to execute Kenneth Smith under these circumstances. Governor Ivey has an opportunity to use her clemency power to stop this execution, but she shouldn’t stop there – she should also work with the legislature to pass and enact this year’s bill, HB 27, to make the ban on judicial override retroactive, thus providing relief to others in Smith’s situation, including Rocky Myers.”

International interest has exploded in the case, with the United Nations “express(ing) alarm” over the scheduled execution.

A panel of UN experts warned that “experimental executions” will likely violate the UN convention against torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading punishment, to which the United States is a member.

The panel also called on state and federal authorities to halt the execution, pending a review of procedures. It cited the “possibility of grave suffering which execution by pure nitrogen inhalation may cause.”

A leading Catholic charity is also making an appeal to the to halt the execution. The Sant’Egidio Community called the method is “barbarous” and said it would bring “indelible shame” to the state. The group has lobbied for decades to abolish the death penalty.

A reporter from the BBC is already reporting from Atmore, days ahead of the set execution.

The nitrogen execution is set to be the first of its kind. Many states have approved the method, as Alabama did in 2018, but no state has yet to attempt it. Smith’s lawyers have appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court to halt the execution, but the high court has yet to rule.

“There is nothing more final and irreversible than death. Without a stay of his execution, Mr. Smith faces an unconstitutional death that will strip him of his ‘final dignity,’” wrote his lawyers in their petition. “ADOC’s recent string of failed execution attempts—including the one Mr. Smith already suffered—is the only evidence needed to support this assertion.”

The Alabama Attorney General’s Office filed a response to the high court, saying nitrogen hypoxia may be the “most humane method of execution ever devised.”

Smith has been on death row more than three decades for participating in the murder-for-hire plot of Elizabeth Dorlene Sennett in her home in Colbert County in 1988. Sennett was a pastor’s wife who was beaten and stabbed. Smith confessed to his role in the crime after the slaying.