An Alabama death row inmate was executed Thursday night, marking the first time in the United States to be executed by nitrogen gas, authorities confirmed.
Kenneth Eugene Smith, 58, died at Holman Prison in Atmore after the Supreme Court refused to block experimental executions.
Smith was forced to inhale toxic gas through a mask, depriving his body of oxygen until he suffocated.
He was pronounced dead at 8:25 p.m.
Mr. Smith spent more than 30 years in prison after being convicted in 1988 of the commissioned murder of a preacher's wife.
A federal appeals court on Wednesday rejected Smith's second attempt to stay the death penalty, and the Supreme Court issued a last-minute ruling Thursday.
He previously survived a failed lethal injection in the same death cell in November 2022. It came after doctors administering a deadly chemical concoction poked and prodded him for hours trying to find a suitable vein before the injections were stopped.
Earlier this week, he told the Guardian He said he was “not ready” to die in this controversial manner and was having nightmares ahead of his execution date.
“I'm still suffering from the first execution and now I'm doing it again. They won't even let me get post-traumatic stress disorder,” the deceased man told the paper. Told.
Before his death, he met with his family and spiritual advisor, the Rev. Jeff Hood.
For his final meal, Smith ate a T-bone steak, hash browns, toast and eggs slathered in A1 steak sauce, Hood told The Associated Press.
“He's scared of the torture that might come. But he's also at peace. One of the things he said to me was that he was finally getting out of prison,” Hood said before his execution. Ta.
Smith's nitrogen gas execution was the first to use a new method since lethal injection was first used in 1982.
In recent years, the drugs used in lethal injections have become difficult to obtain, prompting Alabama to explore alternative methods of execution. I solved it with nitrogen gas.
Until Thursday, nitrogen gas had never been used to kill someone in the United States, but Alabama is just one of three states that allows its use in executions.
This method is sometimes used to euthanize animals, and experts have warned that using this method on prisoners will result in a painful and inhumane death. This method caught the attention of the United Nations, which urged the state of Alabama to halt plans to execute Smith.
Smith's lawyer argued that the state was using his client as a “guinea pig” for execution methods. They argued that the execution violated the Constitution's prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment and required further legal scrutiny before being carried out against a person.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who along with two other liberal justices dissented from the Supreme Court's decision, wrote Thursday night: Never tried it before. The world is paying attention. ”
Death Penalty Action co-founder Abraham Bonowitz compared Alabama's “experiment” on Smith to what the Nazis did on Jews during World War II.
Jeffrey Keller, president of the American Association of Orthodontists, told the Post that executions are similar to putting a plastic bag over a person's head, but instead of carbon dioxide poisoning, they inhale nitrogen. .
“It's essentially the same thing,” he said.
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.
Charles Sennett Jr., the victim's son, said: WAAY-TV interview Smith “has to pay for what he did.”
“And there are some people out there who say, 'Well, he doesn't have to suffer that much.' So didn't he ask Mama how he suffered? The son said, 'They… They just did that. They stabbed her multiple times.”
In 2023, 24 inmates were executed in the United States, all by lethal injection.
with post wire
