The wife of murderer Kenneth Eugene Smith reportedly screamed as he writhed in his restraints for 22 minutes before he became the first person in the nation to be executed by nitrogen gas. According to the victim's son, that finally led to his mother being executed with nitrogen gas. 36 years after her murder.
Eugene Smith, who had previously survived a botched execution date, was forced to inhale toxic gas through a mask at Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, Alabama, on Thursday, depriving his body of oxygen and dying several times before suffocating. He seemed to be conscious for a minute.
As the gunman pushed away from his restraints, his wife Deanna, wearing a “Never Alone” T-shirt, screamed for him from the witness stand, reporters at the scene said.
She attended the execution along with other family members, which took about 22 minutes, said Jeff Hood, the family's spiritual advisor.
Mr Hood called it the “worst thing” he had ever seen, and claimed that even prison officials were “obviously surprised at how bad this situation had become.”
“Nobody lost consciousness within 30 seconds,” Hood said, standing with Smith's wife.
“What we saw was a few minutes of someone struggling for their life,” he said.
“We saw someone walking back and forth for a few minutes. We saw spitting. We saw all kinds of things coming out of his mouth showing up on the mask. We saw this mask strapped to a stretcher and he was tearing his head forward over and over again.”
He repeated the perpetrator's last statement: “Alabama has set humanity back.”
“Kenny Smith was by no means a perfect man, but we must ensure that something like this never happens again,” Hood said.
Alabama prison director Jon Hamm insisted the executions went according to plan.
“Smith appeared to be holding his breath for as long as possible,” Hamm said. “He was resisting the restraints a little bit, but it was an involuntary movement, and he was breathing laboredly. So it was all expected.”
Smith was one of two men convicted of the commission murder of a preacher's wife in 1988. Each man was paid $1,000 for killing Elizabeth Sennett on behalf of her husband Charles Sennett, who wanted to cash in his insurance money.
Sennett was found stabbed to death in his home. Preacher committed suicide a week after her death while detectives pursued him as a suspect.
Sennett's son Mike called the execution a “bittersweet day.”
“We're not going to jump up and down and jeer and yell 'Hurray!' or whatever. That's not who we are,” Mike said at a press conference. “But I'm glad this day is over.”
He described Eugene Smith's execution as “a weight lifted off my shoulders,” but said his family had forgiven all three people involved in his mother's murder “many years ago.”
“I forgive him,” he said of Smith. “I forgive him [for] what did he do? We don't like what he did, but we forgive him.
“The Bible says there are consequences for bad deeds, but Kenneth Smith made a bad decision 35 years ago, and his debt was paid tonight,” his son said.
“Justice was served tonight for Elizabeth Doreen Thorne Sennett.”
Comes with post wire.
