Alabama execution set in murder-for-hire of preacher’s wife

By KIM CHANDLER
Associated Press

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Alabama is preparing to execute a man convicted in the 1988 murder-for-hire slaying of a preacher’s wife. Kenneth Eugene Smith is scheduled to receive a lethal injection Thursday. Prosecutors said Smith was one of two men paid $1,000 each to kill Elizabeth Sennett on behalf of her husband. A jury voted 11-1 to recommend a life sentence, but a judge overrode the jury’s recommendation and sentenced Smith to death. The victim’s husband, Charles Sennett, later killed himself. Final appeals focused on difficulties at the state’s last two executions and the fact that judges can no longer override a jury’s recommendation. The other man convicted in the slaying was executed in 2010.