Death row inmate Kenneth Smith has been executed.
Smith was executed on January 25 at 8.25pm CST at the Holman Correctional Facility in Alabama.
The horrendous backstory…
Alongside his colleague John Forrest Parker, Smith was convicted of the murder-for-hire of Alamaba woman Elizabeth Dorlene Sennett back in 1988.
Sennett’s husband hired a man to murder his wife, who in turn hired Smith and Parker to do the job.
Elizabeth was stabbed 10 times in her home, suffering eight wounds to the chest and two to the neck, which ended up being fatal.
After learning he was a suspect in her murder, Elizabeth’s husband, Charles Sennett Sr, took his own life.
The execution
Parker was sentenced to death and executed by lethal injection back in 2010.
More than a decade later, in 2022, Smith had been scheduled for execution but managed to survive.
At the time, the execution team could not connect an intravenous line for a lethal injection before his death warrant expired.
After nitrogen gas was selected as a new method of execution in 2023, lawyers representing Smith claimed that it would violate his rights under the Eighth Amendment of the US Constitution.
The Eighth Amendment protects people against “cruel and unusual” punishments.
Unfortunately for Smith, the US Supreme Court on January 24 declined to hear Smith’s appeal and denied the death row inmate’s request to halt the execution.
Smith’s execution successfully went ahead on January 25, and the inmate was pronounced dead by officials 22 minutes after it began.
“Tonight Alabama causes humanity to take a step backwards,” Smith said in a final statement.
“I’m leaving with love, peace and light.”
He then made the “I love you sign” with his hands toward family members who were present.
“Thank you for supporting me,” Smith told his family. “Love, love all of you.”
The state of Alabama has claimed that the nitrogen method was
“perhaps the most humane method of execution ever devised.”
According to eyewitness statements from reporters present in the death chamber, however, it doesn’t seem like that was the case.
The sad truth…
Marty Roney of the Montgomery Advertiser reported that he saw Smith in visible pain leading up to his death.
“Smith writhed and convulsed on the gurney,” he wrote. “He took deep breaths, his body shaking violently with his eyes rolling in the back of his head.”
Roney continued, “Smith clenched his fists, his legs shook … He seemed to be gasping for air. The gurney shook several times.”
According to the Death Penalty Information Center, nitrogen hypoxia is the first of its kind anywhere in the world.
Execution via nitrogen gas is a controversial procedure, to say the least.
Nitrogen hypoxia is a form of execution where a person is deprived of oxygen until they are breathing only nitrogen gas, killing them via asphyxiation.
Making up around 80 percent of the air we breathe already, nitrogen is not lethal unless separated from oxygen.
In court filings, The State of Alabama said that with the execution method they expect a person to lose consciousness within seconds and die within minutes.
However, a number of medical professionals have contested this claim.
This method is controversial as there are dangers associated with using nitrogen gas as a method of execution.
Emory University’s School of Medicine Associate Professor in anesthesiology Joel Zivot told USA Today about some of the dangers.
He said that execution via nitrogen hypoxia was a method that could cause a seizure, causing the person being put to death to vomit and die from choking instead.