“No one lost consciousness within 30 seconds. What we saw was several minutes of someone struggling for their life,” said Reverend Hood, one of the witnesses.
Friday 26 January 2024 05:51, UK
An Alabama prisoner has become the first prisoner in the world to be executed by nitrogen gas.
Convicted murderer Kenneth Smith, 58, was sentenced to death after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a legal challenge to halt his sentence.
His official time of death was 8.25pm on Thursday (2.25am on Friday UK time).
Witnesses said the execution took about 22 minutes, and Smith appeared conscious for several minutes.
For at least two minutes, he appeared to be shaking, struggling and at times pulling at his restraints. This was followed by several minutes of heavy breathing, until breathing became imperceptible.
State officials predicted he would be unconscious within seconds and dead within minutes.
In his final statement, Mr. Smith said: “tonight Alabama Set humanity back…I leave with love, peace, and light. ”
He signed “I love you” to his wife and other family members who were witnesses. “Thank you for supporting me. Love you all,” Smith said.
Humane death or lethal experiment?Mechanism of nitrogen execution
The use of nitrogen gas is highly controversial, with critics calling it cruel and experimental. It had never been used before in the world.
This includes securing the mask securely to your face and covering your mouth and nose.
The mask is then supplied with nitrogen gas. A person continues to breathe normally, but when oxygen is depleted, the body gradually stops functioning and eventually dies. In effect, you will suffocate.
Smith was convicted of murder-for-hire for the 1988 murder of Elizabeth Sennett.
Prosecutors said he was one of two men paid $1,000 each to kill Sennett on behalf of her husband, a pastor who was deeply in debt and wanted to collect insurance money. He said that.
She was found with eight stab wounds to her chest and one on each side of her neck.
Another murderer, John Forrest Parker, was executed in 2010.
“On March 18, 1988, 45-year-old Elizabeth Sennett's life was brutally taken by Kenneth Eugene Smith,” Alabama Governor Kay Ivey said in a statement.
“After more than 30 years of repeated attempts to game the system, Mr. Smith has answered for his horrific crimes.
“The death penalty was legally carried out through nitrogen hypoxia, a method Mr. Smith had previously requested as an alternative to lethal injection.
“Mr. Smith finally got what he wanted and this case can finally be closed.
“We pray that Elizabeth Sennett's family can find closure after many years of dealing with their great loss.”
“Mom has justice”
“Alabama has accomplished something historic,” said State Attorney General Steve Marshall.
“Like most states, Alabama has determined that some crimes are so horrific that they merit extreme punishment.
“But anti-death penalty activists have sought to override that moral judgment through pressure campaigns against those who support the state in the process.
“They don't care that Alabama's new method is humane and effective because they know it's easy to do.”
The Rev. Jeff Hood, who attended the execution, said the reality did not match Alabama's prediction that he would die instantly.
“We didn't see anyone lose consciousness for less than 30 seconds. What we saw was several minutes of someone struggling for their life,” he said.
Hood said Smith's last meal was a T-bone steak, hash browns, toast and eggs with steak sauce.
Mike Sennett, the son of Smith's victim, spoke to the media after the execution.
“Nothing that happened here today is going to bring my mom back. It's kind of a bittersweet day,” he said.
“We're not going to jump up and down. We're not going to cheer and whoop and hooray and all that…we're going to end by saying Elizabeth Doreen Sennett did justice tonight.”
Smith's execution came after he survived a botched lethal injection in 2022 when authorities spent several hours trying and failing to put an IV line into his body.
The case prompted a review of the state's death penalty procedures.
Supreme Court justices argued that attempting to execute Smith a second time after he suffered severe trauma from the first failure would violate the Eighth Amendment's protections against cruel and unusual punishment. declined to support legal challenges.
However, the ruling was not unanimous, with three judges voting in favor of halting the execution.
“After failing to kill Mr. Smith on the first attempt, the state of Alabama chose him as a 'guinea pig' to test an execution method that had never been attempted before,” Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote. , said it would have granted the injunction.
“The world is watching.”
Just minutes before the execution, the Supreme Court refused to intervene a second time.