‘What we saw was minutes of someone struggling for their life’ – backlash over first-time use of nitrogen gas to execute killer in US

A man who was paid $1,000 to kill an Alabama woman more than 30 years ago was put to death with pure nitrogen gas, a first-of-its-kind execution that again placed the US at the forefront of the debate on capital punishment.

Kenneth Eugene Smith’s execution took about 22 minutes from the time between the opening and closing of the curtains to the viewing room.

Smith appeared to remain conscious for several minutes. For at least two minutes, he appeared to shake and writhe on the gurney, sometimes pulling against the restraints. That was followed by several minutes of heavy breathing, until breathing was no longer perceptible.

“Tonight Alabama causes humanity to take a step backwards,” Smith (58) said in a final statement. “I’m leaving with love, peace and light.”

Smith made the “I love you sign” with his hands towards family members who were witnesses. “Thank you for supporting me. Love, love all of you,” Smith said.

Alabama governor Kay Ivey said the execution was justice for the murder-for-hire killing of 45-year-old Elizabeth Sennett in 1988.

Sennett was found dead in her home on March 18, with eight stab wounds in the chest and one on each side of her neck. Smith was one of two men convicted in the killing. The other, John Forrest Parker, was executed in 2010.

Prosecutors said they were each paid $1,000 to kill Sennett on behalf of her pastor husband, who was deeply in debt and wanted to collect on insurance. The husband, Charles Sennett Sr, killed himself when the investigation focused on him as a suspect, according to court documents.

Smith’s 1989 murder conviction was overturned, but he was convicted again in 1996. The jury recommended a life sentence, but a judge overrode that and sentenced him to death. Alabama no longer allows a judge to override a jury’s death penalty decision.

“After more than 30 years and attempt after attempt to game the system, Mr Smith has answered for his horrendous crimes,” Ivey said.

The execution came after a last-minute legal battle in which his attorneys contended the state was making him the test subject for an experimental execution method that could violate the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

Federal courts rejected Smith’s bid to block it, with the latest ruling coming on Thursday night from the US Supreme Court.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who along with two other liberal justices dissented, wrote: “Having failed to kill Smith on its first attempt [by lethal injection in 2022], Alabama has selected him as its ‘guinea pig’ to test a method of execution never attempted before. The world is watching.”

The state had predicted the nitrogen gas would cause unconsciousness within seconds and that death would be arrived at within minutes.

Asked about Smith’s shaking and convulsing on the gurney, Alabama corrections commissioner John Q Hamm said they appeared to be involuntary movements. “That was all expected and was in the side effects that we’ve seen or researched on nitrogen hypoxia,” Hamm said. “Nothing was out of the ordinary from what we were expecting.”

Smith’s spiritual adviser, the Reverend Jeff Hood, said the execution did not match the state attorney general’s prediction in court filings that Smith would lose consciousness in seconds followed by death within minutes.

“We didn’t see somebody go unconscious in 30 seconds. What we saw was minutes of someone struggling for their life,” said Hood.

Some doctors and organisations had expressed alarm about the method, and Smith’s attorneys asked the Supreme Court to halt the execution to review claims it violates America’s constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

In his final hours, Smith met with family members and his spiritual adviser. Smith ate a last meal of T-bone steak, hash browns, toast and eggs slathered in A1 steak sauce, Hood said by telephone before the execution was carried out.

The execution protocol called for Smith to be strapped to a gurney in the execution chamber and a “full facepiece supplied air respirator” to be placed over his face. After he had a chance to make a final statement, the warden, from another room, was to activate the nitrogen gas. It would be administered through the mask for at least 15 minutes or “five minutes following a flatline indication on the EKG, whichever is longer,” according to the state protocol.

Hamm, the corrections commissioner, confirmed afterwards that the gas was flowing for about 15 minutes.

Some states are looking for new ways to execute people because the drugs used in lethal injections have become difficult to find.

Sant’Egidio Community, a Vatican-affiliated Catholic charity based in Rome, had urged Alabama not to go through with the execution, saying the method is “barbarous”, “uncivilised” and would bring “indelible shame” to the state. And experts appointed by the United Nations Human Rights Council cautioned they believe the execution method could violate the prohibition on torture.

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