Who Was Kenneth Eugene Smith: Alabama Carries Out First Nitrogen Gas Execution
Suffocation with nitrogen gas was used to execute Kenneth Eugene Smith, an Alabama death row convict, on Thursday, January 25. The Atmore, Alabama William C. Holman Correctional Facility pronounced him deceased at 8:25 p.m. The convicted killer had previously expressed a preference for a nitrogen gas execution after surviving a failed lethal injection in 2022.
The world witnessed the first capital punishment in this way when Kenneth Eugene Smith was beheaded while his wife and children looked on. Being a witness to the entire ordeal, Kenneth’s spiritual counselor described it as “horrific.” Kenneth uttered his last words and made a gesture of “I love you” to his family before he was executed:
“Thank you for supporting me. Love, love all of you,”
Who Was Kenneth Eugene Smith?
In 1988, the narrative of Kenneth Eugene Smith started when Elizabeth Dorlene Sennett was wanted by her husband, Charles Sennett, a preacher. His purported goal was to amass the death benefit from her insurance policy. Billy Gray Williams was allegedly hired by the preacher to kill his wife, according to WVTV. Nonetheless, Billy Gray delegated the work to someone else.
The executioners, John Parker and Kenneth Smith, were hired by Billy Gray. The assignment cost him $1,000 per person. At her Colbert County home, 45-year-old Elizabeth Dorlene Sennett was stabbed multiple times and beaten with a pipe. An attempted heist gone wrong was staged to make it look that way.
Smith and Parker were both indicted for the murder of Elizabeth, and Williams was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of release. In 2020, Williams passed away. With the use of a fatal injection, Parker met his end in 2010. Out of the three hired individuals that were indicted, only Kenneth Eugine Smith remained.
Smith, who was on death row, was sentenced to execution by nitrogen gas over fourteen years after his accomplice’s killing. The execution of his death sentence in 2022 was a failure due to an injection of the fatal drug. The Independent reports that medical personnel were unable to place an intravenous line into his veins.
Smith voiced his preference for the nitrogen gas approach following the 2022 blunder. In subsequent disclosures, the Alabama Department of Corrections detailed Smith’s final 48 hours on Earth.
A Ruling by a Judge
In 1989, Smith was found guilty and handed a death sentence for his part in Sennett’s murder; however, the decision was subsequently reversed. Smith was re-convicted at a separate trial that took place in 1996. Smith was recommended for a life sentence by the jury. The trial judge, however, reversed the jury’s decision and handed down the death penalty.
The practice, known as judicial override, was prohibited by the Alabama Legislature in 2017, although it was not made retroactive.
The death chamber at Holman Correctional Facility was prepared for Smith’s execution by lethal injection in November 2022. A death sentence was authorized to be carried out around 90 minutes prior to the expiration of the death warrant by the United States Supreme Court.
A second intravenous line, which was required for the administration of the fatal medicines, could not be established by the personnel of the Department of Corrections, leading to the cancellation of the execution. Smith developed post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), according to his lawyers, because of the procedure that left him with several puncture wounds.
Nitrogen Poisoning
Nitrogen executions were legalized by the Alabama legislature in 2018. There was a drug scarcity and mounting criticism of the sedative midazolam at the time, which was used in multiple botched executions (among them, Alabama’s 2016 execution of Ronald Bert Smith) and other states that used the death penalty.
Proponents of the bill, including its sponsor, Republican Montrose senator Trip Pittman, contended that the nitrogen approach would make capital punishment more humanitarian while still allowing the state to carry it out.
“You black out,” Pittman told the Reflector in September. No amount of suffering will be tolerated at this moment. Nitrous oxide is an effective anesthetic for less invasive surgical procedures.
As of Thursday, when contacted, Pittman would not comment.
Medical professionals and anesthesiologists raised doubts about such finding. Due in part to the difficulties in keeping oxygen out, which might prolong death, the American Veterinary Medical Association prohibits the use of nitrogen in euthanizing animals.
The Reflector interviewed Dr. Radha Sadacharan, a practicing family physician, in September about the execution process. “I can’t even begin to imagine what it is like to be in the shoes of someone who is facing execution. But to be waiting for that moment, and to know that you are undergoing a method of execution that is not tested and waiting to suffocate, then that seems like that would be an undue amount of suffering,” Sadacharan said.
Even though the technique has been approved in Mississippi and Oklahoma, as of Thursday, no state had actually executed someone using nitrogen.
In addition, the 2018 law gave those on death row 30 days to decide whether to use the lethal injection or not.
However, in 2019, prisoners and their lawyers complained to the Montgomery Advertiser that they were only informed about the choice a few days prior to the deadline, leading to uncertainty.
A number of death row inmates’ attorneys are located outside of Alabama, and some of them may not have had enough time to research the potential implications of a nitrogen execution. The state’s notification was deemed “a mess” by a federal judge in 2021.
Appeals
Although Smith indicated his choice for nitrogen gas execution in a court file from 2022, he did not initially choose for it.
The execution was legitimately carried out via nitrogen hypoxia, the method that Mr. Smith had previously requested as an alternative to lethal injection,” stated Gov. Kay Ivey on Thursday. “Finally, Mr. Smith has received his request, and we can finally conclude this case.”
The fact that Smith would be the first person to be administered the state’s planned regimen was contested by his attorneys. According to them, he might not be able to pray out loud during the execution because of the mask used in the procedure.
Smith’s legal team contended that his death could be hastened and he could vomit due to oxygen seeping in through a loosely fitting mask. Additionally, Smith’s legal team claimed that the state had unlawfully prioritized his execution above that of other death row inmates who had already decided to die from nitrogen hypoxia after exhausting all available appeals.
Smith would have been exposed to pure nitrogen, according to the Alabama attorney general’s office, who argued that any potential harm was speculative and that the state had taken measures to guarantee this.
The state’s case was upheld by the federal courts. On January 10, U.S. District Judge R. Austin Huffaker Jr. declared that Smith had failed to present a sufficient justification to halt the execution, referring to the accusations and proof as “speculation.”
Upholding Huffaker’s verdict on Wednesday was a divided three-judge panel of the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals.
Death caused by nitrogen hypoxia is definitely something unique and unusual, according to the unsigned opinion. “Smith cannot assert that nitrogen hypoxia, as an innovative technique, will constitute cruel and unusual punishment in breach of the Eighth Amendment on its own because we are obligated to follow Supreme Court precedent.”
Even while he agreed, U.S. Circuit Judge Charles Wilson expressed concern that Smith could be subjected to “a cruel and unusual execution” if the gas caused him to choke on his own vomit. Jill Pryor, a U.S. Circuit Judge, wrote in her dissenting opinion that Smith was quite likely to confront that situation due to his PTSD.
