A CONVICTED murderer has slammed the state of Alabama for “making humanity take a step back” in his final moments before he was put to death in the first nitrogen execution.
Kenneth Eugene Smith, 58, was pronounced dead at 8:25 p.m. Thursday after being administered pure nitrogen through a face mask.
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Kenneth Eugene Smith, 58, was executed by nitrogen gas on Thursday eveningCredit: AFP
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Smith was convicted of planned murder-for-hire in 1988, and a previous attempt to execute him by lethal injection in 2022 was unsuccessful. Credit: EPA
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Instead he became the first inmate to be killed by nitrogen gas Credit: AP: Associated Press
Witnesses said the killer suffered in agony for a total of 22 minutes after the gas started flowing.
“Tonight, Alabama takes humanity back a step,” Smith said moments before inhaling nitrogen.
“Humanity has risen….I leave with love, peace and light…..I love you. Thank you for supporting me. I love you all.”
He wrote I love you with his left hand as his family watched from the death chamber window.
A mask similar to what a firefighter would wear was then placed over his face before receiving a dose of 100 percent nitrogen.
The Alabama Attorney General’s Office expected Smith to lose consciousness soon after the gas started flowing, but he remained conscious for several minutes, according to witnesses.
Smith was shaking and writhing on the gurney, jerking his head back and forth, about two minutes after the gas was administered, witnesses said.
He then lay down on a gurney, breathing heavily for five to seven minutes before he died, according to AL.com.
His wife, Deanna, one of the few people who witnessed the event, cried and called out to Smith as he struggled against the seat belts on the wheelchair.
Smith’s spiritual advisor called the execution “disgusting” and said the inmate struggled for several minutes, writhing back and forth.
“A great evil has come upon the state of Alabama tonight,” said the Reverend Jeff Hood.
FIRST EXECUTION OF NITROGEN
Smith’s death marks the first time a new execution method has been used in the US since the introduction of lethal injection in 1982.
He was convicted in 1988 of murder for hire and was scheduled to be executed in 2022, however, authorities were unable to connect an IV line to perform the lethal injection.
Smith was one of two men convicted of the 1988 hit-and-run murder of Elizabeth Sennett.
Prosecutors say he and another man were paid $1,000 each to kill Sennett at the behest of her pastor husband, who was in debt and wanted to collect on her life insurance.
Her husband, Charles Sennett Sr., killed himself when the investigation named him a suspect, according to court documents.
John Forrest Parker, the second man convicted of Sennett’s murder, was executed in 2010.
Smith’s lawyers fought to save him until his scheduled execution.
They claimed the state was trying to make him a test subject for an experimental method of execution.
The state said nitrogen would cause unconsciousness within seconds and death within minutes, calling it “the most painless and humane method of execution known to man.”
Smith’s legal team said the method could violate the Constitution’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment, but federal courts rejected Smith’s request to block it.
The latest ruling came Thursday night from the US Supreme Court.
‘THE WORLD IS WATCHING’
Supreme Court justices voted 6-3 to allow the historic proceedings to continue.
“Having failed to kill Smith on the first try, Alabama chose him as its ‘guinea pig’ to test a previously untried method of execution,” wrote Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who dissented.
“The world is watching.”
Doctors and organizations have expressed concern about the method, including Smith’s lawyers, asking the Supreme Court to delay the execution.
“There is little research on death caused by nitrogen hypoxia,” Smith’s lawyers wrote.
“When a state is considering using a new form of execution that has never been attempted anywhere, the public has an interest in ensuring that the state has adequately researched the method and established procedures to reduce the pain and suffering of the condemned person.”
Sotomayor wrote in her dissent that Alabama has kept its execution protocol secret, releasing only heavily redacted information.
She said Smith should have been allowed to get evidence of the execution protocol to continue his legal challenge.
“That information is important not only to Smith, who has additional reason to fear the cart, but also to everyone the state wants to execute after him using this new method,” she wrote before the execution.
“This court has twice already ignored Smith’s warning that Alabama would expose him to an unconstitutional risk of pain. I sincerely hope he is proven wrong the second time.”
Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson also opined.
CALLS FOR THE ABOLITION OF THE DEATH PENALTY
Protesters gathered outside the prison Thursday and outside the Alabama state Capitol earlier this week to call for an end to “experimental executions.”
“We have a state that has botched three executions, horribly botched three executions in recent years,” Reverend Hood told AL.com.
“And these should be the same people who will be successful in the first experimental, new, nitrogen hypoxia?
“So anyone who would say I’m alarmist needs to look at the history of this country. Their past.”
Speaking at the protest was Gary Drinkard, who spent five years on death row in Alabama before being released in 2001.
“We’re not saying Kenny is innocent,” Drinkard said.
“But he was a changed man. He was a born-again Christian when I got there. He always had a smile on his face.
“He’s sorry for what happened. He would never do it again, he always tries to help someone if he can. That was Kenny.”
FINAL HOURS
Prior to the execution, Smith was socializing with family members and Reverend Hood.
Smith was “really struggling” ahead of his execution, according to his pastor, John Ewell.
His last meal was a T-bone steak, hash, toast and eggs with A1 steak sauce from Waffle House, although Smith couldn’t eat most of it.
Earlier that day he had refused to eat his last breakfast of eggs, biscuits, grape jelly, applesauce and orange juice.
He also refused to eat lunch but was able to drink Mountain Dew, Pepsi and coffee.
Prison officials ordered Smith to drink only clear liquids from 4 p.m. until his death.
Smith also had final phone conversations with his wife and sons, Steven Tiggleman and Michael Bryant, who were also present at the execution.
“He is horrified by the torture that could ensue,” Hood told The Associated Press.
“But he’s also at peace. One of the things he told me is that he’s finally coming out.”
Sennett’s son, Charles Sennett Jr., told ABC affiliate WAAY-TV that Smith “has to pay for what he did.”
“And some of these people out there say, ‘Well, he shouldn’t suffer like that.’ So he didn’t ask mom how to suffer?” Sennett said.
“They did just that. They stabbed her—multiple times.”
Sennett’s other son, Mike Sennett, said at a press conference after the execution, “There’s nothing that happened here today that would bring mom back.”
“We’re glad this is over…Elizabeth Dorlene Sennett got justice tonight.”
Alabama Governor Kay Ivey said the execution was justice for Elizabeth Sennett.
“After more than 30 years and attempt after attempt to cheat the system, Mr. Smith has been held accountable for his horrific crimes,” Ivey said in a statement.
“I pray for the Elizabeth Sennett family to find closure after all these years of dealing with this great loss.”
America’s most notorious executions
The issue of the death penalty in the US has been brought back into the spotlight following the execution of Kenneth Eugene Smith
The US Sun took a look at some of the most notorious executions, including the ones that didn’t go to plan.
Jesse Tafero
Tafero was sentenced to death after being wrongly accused of shooting two police officers in 1976.
His death was anything but ordinary as the electric chair he was strapped to broke three times and his head burst into six-inch flames.
“It took seven minutes before the prison doctor pronounced him dead, seven minutes of heaving, nodding, flames and smoke,” an eyewitness later said.
Clayton Lockett
Lockett was sentenced to death for murder and rape in 2000, but his execution was called off in 2014 after it was botched.
Nine unsuccessful attempts were made to inject potassium chloride into his veins until officers inserted a needle into his groin.
The injection slowed his heart instead of stopping it completely before the doctor inserted the needle into the artery, causing blood to swish across it.
The execution was postponed, but Lockett died of a heart attack on the way to the hospital.
George Stinney
A fourteen-year-old boy was sentenced to death in 1944 for the murder of two girls, despite a lack of evidence.
Stinney was too small to fit in the electric chair, so he had to sit on books, but he survived the first round of 2,400 volts.
Prison guards had to use two more electric shots to kill the teenager.
Stinney’s conviction was overturned by a South Carolina court in 2014, 70 years after he was executed.
John Evans
Evans shot and killed a pawn shop owner in Alabama in 1977 during a botched raid on the store.
He initially survived the first 1,900-volt shocks, but the electrode came off, resulting in a gruesome scene.
“A large plume of greyish smoke and sparks erupted from under the hood covering Mr Evans’ face,” his lawyer said.
“An overpowering stench of burnt flesh and clothes began to spread through the witness room.”
Evan’s heart was still beating after the second shock and he finally died after the third shock, in 14 minutes of agony.
Pedro Medina
Medina, a Cuban refugee, was convicted of murdering his neighbor Dorothy James in 1982.
He died in the electric chair 15 years later, but a journalist reported on his gruesome ordeal.
“Blue and orange flames up to a foot long shot to the right” of his head, the reporter said.
“They are burning him alive,” said witness Michael Minerva.
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Smith and John Forrest Parker were convicted of murdering Elizabeth Sennett at the behest of her pastor husband
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Anti-death penalty activists protested Smith’s execution, calling it cruel and unusual punishmentCredit: Reuters
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Protests took place outside the facility and in Alabama’s capitol earlier this weekCredit: AP
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