The state of Alabama executed convicted murderer Kenneth Eugene Smith by nitrogen hypoxia on Thursday night, marking the first time in recorded history that a human being has been put to death using this untested method, a procedure that witnesses described as a violent and prolonged ordeal lasting nearly half an hour. Smith, 58, was pronounced dead at 8:25 p.m. local time at the William C. Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, after the U.S. Supreme Court denied a final, desperate appeal from his legal team, who argued the execution amounted to cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth Amendment. The execution, carried out at 7:56 p.m., began with a mask fitted over Smith’s face, and within one minute, witnesses reported that his body began thrashing violently against the restraints, his head jerking back and forth, his fists clenched, and his legs shaking as he gasped for air, with fluid observed inside the mask. Alabama officials had promised the nitrogen gas would render Smith unconscious almost immediately, leading to death within minutes, but the process stretched to 29 minutes, drawing immediate condemnation from the United Nations and human rights groups who labeled it a potential form of torture.
The execution of Kenneth Eugene Smith is the culmination of a case that has haunted the small town of Sheffield, Alabama, since 1988, when Elizabeth Sennett, a 45-year-old devoted wife, mother, and grandmother, was brutally murdered in her own home in a plot orchestrated by her husband, Reverend Charles Sennett Sr. Reverend Sennett, who led the Westside Church of Christ, was drowning in debt and carrying on an extramarital affair, and he had secretly taken out a large life insurance policy on his wife, setting a plan in motion that would destroy an entire family. In March 1988, Sennett approached Billy Gray Williams, one of his tenants, and hired him to find someone to kill Elizabeth, offering $1,000 for the job, and Williams brought in Kenneth Eugene Smith and John Forrest Parker to carry out the attack. The plan was to make the murder look like a burglary, but the men spent the money on drugs and instead purchased a six-inch survival knife, which Smith was seen sharpening as they drove to the Sennett home in Colbert County. Upon arrival, Smith and Parker attacked Elizabeth inside her home, beating and stabbing her repeatedly, leaving her unconscious, and investigators later concluded that when Reverend Sennett returned home, he found his wife still alive and administered the final wound himself before calling police. Elizabeth Sennett died one week later, and as investigators began circling his name, Reverend Charles Sennett Sr. took his own life, leaving behind a legacy of betrayal and violence that would take decades to resolve.
Kenneth Smith was quickly apprehended after investigators found the Sennett family’s VCR in his home, a piece of evidence that linked him directly to the crime, and he was charged with capital murder alongside John Forrest Parker. Billy Gray Williams, the middleman who arranged the murder, was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole and died behind bars in November 2020, while Parker was sentenced to death and executed by lethal injection on June 10, 2010. Smith faced two trials, the first in 1989 resulting in a conviction for capital murder, and the second in 1996, where the jury voted 11 to one in favor of a life sentence, but the judge overruled that recommendation, a practice known as judicial override that Alabama later abolished in 2017, though the change did not apply retroactively. Smith was sentenced to death in 1996, and he spent the next 26 years exhausting every avenue of appeal, but by late 2022, his legal options were exhausted, and his execution was scheduled for November 17, 2022, by lethal injection. That execution failed catastrophically when execution teams could not access Smith’s veins within the time allowed by the death warrant, leaving him strapped to a gurney for four hours, from 7:57 p.m. until midnight, while he pleaded for answers and believed he was being executed. In his legal complaint afterward, Smith described the experience as deeply painful and confusing, and as part of a settlement, Alabama agreed not to pursue lethal injection again, offering him the option of nitrogen hypoxia, a method that had never been used on a human being before.
The announcement that Alabama intended to execute Kenneth Smith by nitrogen gas set off a global firestorm of controversy, with medical experts raising serious concerns about the protocol, which was shrouded in secrecy and lacked critical details about how the gas would be delivered, what concentration would be used, or how it had been tested. Smith’s attorneys argued that the mask might not seal properly, allowing oxygen to leak in and prolong his death, or that he could vomit inside the mask, risking suffocation, and they noted that Smith had been vomiting repeatedly in the weeks before the execution. The United Nations weighed in, with human rights experts calling on Alabama to halt the execution, warning that it could amount to torture or cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment under international law, but the U.S. Supreme Court denied every last-minute appeal. Smith and his spiritual advisor, Reverend Jeff Hood, issued a joint statement the afternoon before his death, saying, “The eyes of the world are on this impending moral apocalypse. Our prayer is that people will not turn their heads. We simply cannot normalize the suffocation of each other.” Elizabeth Sennett’s sons told CNN earlier that same day that they believed it was time for Smith’s sentence to be carried out and that their mother had been forgotten in the conversation about the execution method, expressing a desire for closure after 36 years.
Smith spent his final 24 hours receiving visits from friends and family, including his wife, Deanna, who spoke to the press that evening, saying, “While everybody was waiting for Christmas, all excited about Christmas, our family was waiting for the courts to decide the fate of my husband and whether he’s going to suffer or were they going to stand up and do the right thing.” His last meal consisted of steak, hash browns, and eggs, a simple request that underscored the gravity of the moment as the clock ticked toward his death. At 7:56 p.m., the execution began, with Smith strapped to a gurney, his arms extended and covered with a white sheet to his chest, and a mask fitted over his face that muffled his voice as he spoke his final words. Through the mask, witnesses heard him say, “Tonight, Alabama caused humanity to take a step backwards. I leave with love, peace, and light. I love all of you. Thank you for supporting me.” Then the nitrogen began to flow, and within one minute, Smith’s body started thrashing violently against the restraints, his whole body and head jerking back and forth, his fists clenched, his legs shaking, and his body lifting against the straps as he gasped for air, with fluid observed inside the mask. Alabama officials had promised the process would be swift and painless, but witnesses watched Smith suffer for 29 minutes before he was pronounced dead at 8:25 p.m., a timeline that contradicted every assurance given by the state.
The reaction to Smith’s execution was immediate and international, with the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights condemning the method as a potential form of torture and degrading punishment, while UN Special Rapporteurs released a joint statement calling it a stark reminder of the barbaric nature of the death penalty. Advocates and legal organizations called for Alabama to halt any further nitrogen executions until a full review could be conducted, but the Alabama Attorney General’s office declared it justice served, emphasizing that Smith had been convicted of a heinous crime. Elizabeth Sennett’s son, Michael, spoke at a press conference after the execution, saying, “All three of the people involved in this case, we have forgiven them. Not today, but we have in the past,” and he noted that Parker and Smith had been incarcerated for almost twice as long as he had known his mother, a poignant reflection on the passage of time. Despite the controversy, Alabama pressed forward, and on September 26, 2024, just eight months after Smith’s death, Alan Eugene Miller became the second person in history to be executed by nitrogen hypoxia, also in Alabama, as other states began exploring the method as a potential alternative to lethal injection. What began as a controversy in one state had become a blueprint, with Smith’s death serving as a precedent that could reshape capital punishment across the United States, raising profound questions about the morality and legality of untested execution methods.
The case of Kenneth Eugene Smith leaves us with a complex and troubling legacy, starting with the brutal murder of Elizabeth Sennett, a real woman, a mother, and a grandmother, who was killed in her own home because her husband wanted out and was willing to pay $1,000 to make it happen, a fact that is not up for debate. What is up for debate is everything that happened in the 36 years that followed, including the jury that voted 11 to one to spare Smith’s life, only to be overruled by a judge, and the failed execution in 2022 that left him strapped to a gurney for four hours in a state of terror and confusion. Then, on a winter night in Alabama, a mask was placed over his face, and he was killed using a method never before tested on a human being, with witnesses watching him writhe, gasp, and fight against restraints for nearly half an hour, raising questions about whether this was justice or something else entirely. Smith’s final words, “Tonight, Alabama caused humanity to take a step backwards,” echo as a warning, as other states watch and other prisoners wait, and the precedent set by his death could lead to more executions using nitrogen hypoxia. The question remains, when a man is put to death in a way that even his executioners cannot fully explain, in a way that has never been done before, in a way that took 29 minutes while witnesses watched him suffer, is that justice, or is it a step backward for humanity? The world is watching, and the answer may define the future of capital punishment in America.
Source: YouTube