Kenneth Smith’s Final Chapter: A Powerful Nitrogen Gas Execution in Alabama

Kenneth Smith: Alabama made history on Thursday by carrying out the first-ever execution using nitrogen gas. The 58-year-old Kenneth Smith, who had previously survived a failed lethal injection, was the unfortunate victim of this method.

During the execution, Smith was observed to shake and writhe on the gurney, occasionally pulling on the restraints for a duration of at least two minutes. This was followed by several minutes of heavy breathing before he was finally pronounced dead at 8:25 p.m. local time, as reported by The Associated Press.

Rev. Jeff Hood, who served as Smith’s spiritual adviser, expressed his distress, describing the execution as an act of “torture.” Having witnessed five executions in the past 13 months, Hood stated that this was the most horrific sight he had ever witnessed. He tearfully recounted the suffocation of an individual before his eyes.

In his final statement, Smith conveyed his disappointment with Alabama’s actions, stating, “Tonight Alabama causes humanity to take a step backwards.” He expressed gratitude to those who supported him and concluded with a heartfelt message, saying, “Love you all,” as witnessed by the media.

In the final days of Smith’s life, his legal team made a plea to the Supreme Court to halt the execution. They contended that the second attempt to end Smith’s life, using an untested method, was in violation of the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. Furthermore, they argued that this attempt was made before Smith had exhausted all his options in state court appeals and while he was still suffering from symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder resulting from the first attempt.

However, the court rejected this request, with the three liberal justices, Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson, dissenting. The conservative majority did not provide any written explanation for their decision.

In her dissent, Sotomayor expressed her concerns, stating, “By choosing Smith as a ‘guinea pig’ for an untested method of execution, Alabama has failed in its initial attempt to end his life. The world is watching.”

Sotomayor expressed her concern that the Court has disregarded Smith’s previous warning about the unconstitutional risk of pain in Alabama. She acknowledged that Smith’s predictions had come true before, and now he predicts that Alabama’s protocol will lead to him suffocating and choking on his own vomit. Sotomayor sincerely hopes that Smith’s prediction does not come true for a second time.

As Smith’s execution drew near, his lawyers revealed that he had been continuously vomiting for several days due to his post-traumatic stress disorder from his previous execution date. In response, the Alabama Department of Corrections decided to withhold solid foods from Smith, starting at 10 a.m. on Thursday, in order to minimize the possibility of him vomiting into the gas mask.

According to Kenneth Smith’s lawyers, he is the second person in U.S. history to undergo a second execution attempt following a failed effort. The first incident occurred in 1946 in Louisiana when an electric chair malfunctioned. Notably, Smith’s death marked the world’s first documented nitrogen gas execution, scientifically known as nitrogen hypoxia.

However, the Alabama attorney general’s office, in response to a court filing, asserted without substantiation that nitrogen is potentially the most humane method of execution ever devised. The available information regarding nitrogen as a lethal agent primarily stems from euthanizing small animals and studying industrial accidents and suicides.

Contrary to the attorney general’s claim, the American Veterinary Medical Association’s 2020 euthanasia guidelines state that nitrogen hypoxia should not be employed to euthanize most mammals. Additionally, rats exposed to nitrogen gas exhibited signs of “panic and distress” before ultimately collapsing and perishing.

Alabama opted for nitrogen as a means of execution not because they wanted to make Smith’s death more comfortable, but due to a combination of drug shortages and legal challenges surrounding lethal injection. The decision to proceed with a nitrogen execution came after the state’s failed attempts to execute Smith via lethal injection in November 2022, which marked the third botched lethal injection in Alabama that year.

In a joint statement on Thursday morning, Smith and his spiritual adviser, Hood, expressed their concern about the global attention this impending moral crisis has garnered. They fervently hoped that people would not turn a blind eye to the situation, emphasizing that the suffocation of one another should never be normalized.

Hood, who accompanied Kenneth Smith in the execution chamber to administer last rites, had to sign a waiver acknowledging the potential exposure to odorless and tasteless nitrogen gas.

Kenneth Smith was executed as punishment for his involvement in a murder-for-hire plot in 1988, targeting a pastor’s wife, Elizabeth Sennett. The pastor, Charles Sennett Sr., orchestrated the plan to stage a robbery and claim an insurance payout. Despite Smith admitting his role in planning the crime but denying the act of stabbing the victim, the jury recommended a life sentence without parole with an 11-1 vote. However, the judge overruled the jury’s decision and imposed the death penalty.

During a news conference following the execution, Mike Sennett, the son of the victim, expressed satisfaction that his mother had received justice and that the perpetrators of “evil deeds” had faced consequences.

If Kenneth Smith’s trial had taken place today, he would not have received the death penalty. In 2017, Alabama became the last state to prohibit judges from disregarding jury recommendations and imposing death sentences.

Kenneth Smith, who survived an unsuccessful lethal injection in 2022, met his demise on Thursday in Alabama’s inaugural lethal injection execution.

During the initial execution attempt on November 17, 2022, Kenneth Smith remained restrained on the gurney, immobile for nearly four hours. Unbeknownst to him, a federal appellate court had granted a stay of execution, which was subsequently overturned by the Supreme Court. Following the exhaustion of his appeals, officials responsible for the execution made futile attempts to establish two IV lines. Disregarding Smith’s pleas of pain, as stated in a complaint filed in federal court by his legal representatives shortly after the failed execution, they repeatedly inserted and removed a needle in his arms and hands.

Subsequently, the IV team tilted the gurney, subjecting Kenneth Smith to a distressing position akin to a “reverse crucifixion” with his head positioned below his feet, as detailed in the complaint. He endured five or six jabs from a transparent syringe and multiple pricks from a large-gauge needle in his collarbone. The excruciating pain prompted Smith to resist the restraints, resulting in a shoulder injury and difficulty breathing.

During an interview with NPR last year, Smith expressed his distressing experience, stating, “They repeatedly inserted needles into me, like a sewing machine going into the same hole over and over again.” He further described feeling completely isolated in a room full of people who made no attempt to assist him, despite his desperate cries for help.

According to the complaint, when the execution was finally halted, Kenneth Smith was left unable to stand, walk, or even dress himself without assistance. He suffered from severe symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, including nightmares, hypervigilance, hyperarousal, and dissociation, which persisted until his death.

Prior to his initial execution date, Smith filed a lawsuit against Alabama Department of Corrections Commissioner John Hamm, arguing that the state’s lethal injection procedure violated the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment. The Supreme Court has previously ruled that in order for a challenge to an execution method to succeed, the prisoner must propose an alternative method that is both feasible and available, while also reducing the risk of pain.

Kenneth Smith’s identification of nitrogen hypoxia as an alternative was met with opposition from the state, which argued that it was not a viable option. In response, Smith’s lawyers expressed their concerns in a complaint, stating that the sudden change in the state’s stance came just before they were required to disclose information about a failed lethal injection attempt.

The lawyers emphasized that the use of a one-size-fits-all mask to administer the nitrogen gas could result in an inadequate seal, potentially allowing oxygen to enter the mask. This, they warned, could lead to a prolonged and painful death, a stroke, or even a persistent vegetative state for Smith. Additionally, the lawyers raised concerns about the purity of the nitrogen and the lack of clarity regarding its storage to prevent contamination. It was noted that Airgas, a gas distributor in Alabama, had previously stated that it would not supply nitrogen for executions.

Kenneth Smith’s lawyers stated that although he proposed nitrogen as an alternative to lethal injection, he refused to be executed under a process that was hastily introduced to avoid scrutiny into the failed attempt to execute him previously. Alabama Governor Kay Ivey, on the other hand, stated that Smith had received what he had asked for after more than 30 years, and that the case could finally be closed.

However, experts from the United Nations have warned that nitrogen executions likely violate international prohibitions on torture. Miriam Krinsky, the executive director of Fair and Just Prosecution, a group of progressive prosecutors, expressed concern over Alabama’s state-sponsored killing, comparing it to troubling memories of the Holocaust.

She emphasized that as a civilized nation, our desire for retribution should never outweigh our humanity. Krinsky unequivocally condemned the execution and urged policymakers nationwide to abolish the barbaric use of capital punishment.

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