By Hank Bartholomew
On January 25, 2024, the State of Alabama executed one Kenneth Eugene Smith. After a failed lethal injection, the State decided to execute Smith via nitrogen gas, an untested and unvetted method that some argue is inhumane. The execution sets a dangerous precedent going forward regarding capital punishment in America, and has sparked renewed debate over the death penalty and its role in American society.
In 1988, Charles Sennet, a pastor at the Church of Christ in Sheffield, Alabama, hired Smith to kill his wife, Elizabeth Sennet. In the midst of an affair, Mr. Sennet had taken out an insurance policy on his wife. Sennet called police on May 18, 1988, claiming he found his wife dead in their home in Colbert County. Police found stab wounds and multiple marks from a beating by a fireplace instrument on the body. The murder-for-hire had been made to look like a simple home invasion gone wrong. As scrutiny began to turn to him, Charles Sennet killed himself a week after his wife’s death.
Smith confessed to being paid $1,000 to kill Ms. Sennet, and was sentenced to death at his first trial. At a second trial, a jury voted 11-1 for life in prison without the possibility of parole, but the judge in the case overruled the verdict and sentenced Smith to death.
Typically, prisoners sentenced to death are executed by a lethal injection, which is quite literally an intravenous injection of substances that render a prisoner unconscious and then stop their heart. Lethal injections have been in use in the American prison system for almost forty years, and have been shown to be an unpainful way to die. A lethal injection is considered the most humane way of executing prisoners in American history, over a noose, firing squad, gas chamber, or electric chair.
At 7:57 PM on November 17, 2022, guards at the William C. Holman Correctional Facility ended Smith’s phone call with his wife, placed him in handcuffs, and led him to an execution chamber, where they strapped him to a gurney. At 7:59, the U.S. Court of Appeals issued a stay of Smith’s execution, after appeals from the convict’s legal team. Smith, however, was left strapped to the gurney as these legal details were sorted, uninformed that his execution had been called off, believing death was imminent. At about 10 PM, the U.S. Supreme Court lifted the Eleventh Circuit’s stay, and called Smith’s execution back on. Around this time, the Alabama Department of Corrections (ADOC) IV team began to try to set an IV line. While the team attempted to insert a needle into a variety of veins on Smith’s arms and hands, Smith informed a team member that they were inserting the needle in a painful manner. Allegedly, one team member replied, “No I’m not”. After briefly leaving the execution chamber, a prison official forced and held Smith’s head away from his collarbone, where the IV team was attempting to place a central line IV. Smith describes repeated intense and staggering pain. A few moments before midnight, the execution team appears to have given up. A sweaty, hyperventilating, and trembling Smith was unable to lift his hands, and required help to walk out of the execution chamber.
State Governor Kay Ivey refused to admit any wrongdoing in the attempted execution, instead blaming Smith’s legal team for attempting to delay his execution, saying in a statement afterwards, , “ . . . justice could not be carried out tonight because of last minute legal attempts to delay or cancel the execution, attempting it [the execution] was the right thing to do”. No evidence indicates that Smith and his legal advisors were not within their rights with legal proceedings on the night of November 17, 2022.
Another execution date was set for Smith: January 25, 2024. Most likely because of the failures of the previous method, Smith was no longer to be executed by lethal injection. Instead, after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected his final appeal, Smith was sentenced to die by nitrogen hypoxia.
Smith’s execution by this manner was to be the first official execution in world history by such a manner. Nitrogen hypoxia occurs when enough nitrogen is inhaled that it replaces oxygen in the body, leading to death. Essentially, it disables the cardiovascular system.
Around 8:05 PM on the date of his second execution, Smith, having been strapped to a gurney, had a mask placed over his face. When Holman’s warden read his death warrant and asked if he had any last words, Smith replied, “Tonight Alabama caused humanity to take a step backward. I’m leaving with love, peace, and light.” He signed “I love you” to his family.
Inside the chamber with Smith was his spiritual advisor, Jeff Hood.
At approximately 8:10, nitrogen gas began to flow, and continued to do so for about fifteen minutes. Smith remained conscious for some time into the execution, whereupon he began to shake and writhe on the gurney, pulling against the restraints. This was followed by several minutes of deep breathing. Eventually, his breathing slowed until it was no longer noticeable, and Smith was pronounced dead at 8:25 PM.
Family members and friends of Smith appeared shocked by the seeming brutality of the execution. Hood put it simply: “It was the most horrible thing I’ve ever seen”, adding, “An unbelievable evil was unleashed tonight”.
Prior to the execution, the Alabama Attorney General’s office told a federal judge that the execution method would lead to “unconsciousness within seconds and cause death within minutes”. All evidence points to the contrary.
Despite this, Governor Ivey has labeled Smith’s death a success. She called the death of fifty-eight year old man, who had taken time in prison to achieve an associate’s degree and help other inmates gain sobriety, “justice”, adding “After more than 30 years and attempt after attempt to game the system, Mr. Smith has answered for his horrendous crimes”. Once again, there is no evidence that any actions Smith and his team took were unjustified or somehow an attempt to “game the system”.
Despite national outcry at Smith’s death, Ivey and Alabama are ready to move forward. Smith’s method of execution–untested, unknown–sets a highly disturbing precedent. What’s to stop other prisoners from being executed by experimental means? Regardless of whether or not one believes in the death penalty, they should understand the importance of dignity and humane treatment in a human’s final moments.
After the Supreme Court denied a stay of Smith’s second execution, dissents by Justices Sotamayor, Kagan, and Jackson perhaps best summarized the brutal nature of Smith’s death. Sotomayor summarized the situation as follows: “Having failed to kill Smith on its first attempt, Alabama has selected him as its ‘guinea pig’ to test a method of execution never attempted before”. Kagan and Jackson discussed the untested manner of nitrogen hypoxia in their dissents, emphasizing the risk of Smith choking on his own vomit as he was deprived of oxygen. Smith was not permitted to eat ten hours prior to the execution and not allowed to drink fur hours before. Outcry to prevent experimental methods of death have arisen, and perhaps Justice Sotomayor summarized it best: “The world is watching”.
