by Alabama carried out the first American execution using nitrogen gas Thursday night, killing a convicted murderer whose jury had voted to spare his life and opening a new frontier in how states execute prisoners sentenced to death. death.
The convicted prisoner, Kenneth Smith, 58, was pronounced dead at 8:25 p.m. Central Time, according to Alabama prison spokeswoman Kelly Betts. . The Supreme Court allowed the execution to move forward despite objections from its three liberal justices and concerns from death penalty opponents who said the untested method could cause Mr. Smith suffering.
Mr. Smith was one of three men convicted of the 1988 murder of a woman whose husband, a pastor, had recruited them to kill her.
He protocol released by prison officials required strapping Mr. Smith to a gurney in the state execution chamber in Atmore, Alabama, and pumping nitrogen into a mask on his head, depriving him of oxygen.
Mr. Smith’s lawyers have said they believe this is the world’s first nitrogen execution. It was the second time Alabama had attempted to kill Smith, following a botched lethal injection in November 2022 in which executioners were unable to find a suitable vein before his death sentence expired.
The Supreme Court’s order allowing the execution to continue gave no explanation, as is often the case when magistrates decide on emergency requests. The court’s three liberal members disagreed with the majority’s decision.
In a strongly worded dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayor expressed concern about Alabama’s new method. “Failing to kill Smith on its first attempt, Alabama has selected him as its ‘guinea pig’ to test a method of execution never before attempted,” she wrote. “The world is watching.”
Justice Elena Kagan, in a separate dissent joined by Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, wrote that she would pause the execution to give the court time to examine the “exceptional circumstances” surrounding Alabama’s new execution method and Mr. .Smith.
“The state’s protocol was recently developed and is still under review to prevent Smith from choking on his own vomit,” Justice Kagan wrote.
Nitrogen hypoxia, as the method is known, has been used in some assisted suicides in Europe and elsewhere, although the precise method Alabama used differs from common practice. Lawyers for the state have argued that death from nitrogen hypoxia, as it is known, is painless, with loss of consciousness occurring within seconds, followed by cardiac arrest. They also point out that Mr. Smith and his lawyers have identified the method as preferable to the problematic practice of lethal injection in the state.
Mr. Smith’s lawyers argued that Alabama was not adequately prepared to carry out the execution, that a mask, rather than a bag or other enclosure, could theoretically allow in enough oxygen to prolong the process and cause suffering to the victim. Mr. Smith, and that Mr. Smith, who has been experiencing frequent nausea lately, could choke under the mask if he vomited.
In your last request To get the Supreme Court to intervene, Mr. Smith’s lawyers argued that Alabama’s plan for his execution, including what they describe as a “one-size-fits-all mask,” would create a substantial risk that he would “be left in an emergency situation.” ”. persistent vegetative state, suffering a stroke, or choking on one’s own vomit.”
Nitrogen makes up about 78 percent of Earth’s air and is normally harmless; Oxygen, which makes up about 21 percent, is essential for human life. But when nitrogen is pumped into an enclosure or mask, it can rapidly drive out oxygen and cause rapid unconsciousness and death.
Dr. Philip Nitschke, a pioneer in assisted suicide who estimated he has witnessed approximately 50 nitrogen deaths, has said that wearing a mask in Alabama could cause problems if there was a leak that allowed in too much oxygen. He said he could imagine a variety of potential scenarios, from a quick death to one involving substantial anguish and pain.
The Supreme Court already declined to intervene in lawyers’ appeal of a separate case on Wednesday, in which they had argued that attempting to execute Mr. Smith a second time amounted to unconstitutional cruel and unusual punishment, in part because of what heartbreaking that the failed process was. The 2022 execution attempt had been.
Mr. Smith’s case is unique in part because the jury that convicted him of murder also voted 11-1 to sentence him to life in prison, rather than death, but the judge overturned their decision. Alabama has since made it illegal for judges to overturn jurors who have recommended a life sentence (a ban that now exists in all states), but the new law did not apply to previous cases.
Mr. Smith’s spiritual advisor, the Rev. Jeff Hood, was in the room during the execution. He said earlier Thursday that Smith had spent the morning meeting with members of his family, one of his lawyers and Hood. Smith and his mother kept their heads together for much of the visit, he said, and there were “a lot of tears.”
He also said that Mr. Smith had eaten his last meal on Thursday morning: a ribeye, hash browns and eggs, all from Waffle House and slathered with meat sauce.
Prison officials said that, in an effort to reduce the likelihood that Mr. Smith would vomit during the execution, he would not be allowed to eat after 10 a.m.
The execution took place in a rural area of southern Alabama, about an hour’s drive northeast of Mobile, near the Florida border. Police officers blocked the road leading to the William C. Holman Prison, where the execution took place, and it was covered by trees, out of sight from the nearby road.
A handful of anti-death penalty protesters gathered for a time in a designated protest zone nearby, but the dirt road quickly filled with mud puddles after a stretch of heavy rain.
Before Thursday’s execution, a White House spokeswoman declined to comment.
“This is a state-level case and I will not discuss the details of this particular case,” spokeswoman Olivia Dalton said, adding that President Biden has broad concerns about how the death penalty is being implemented “and whether or not it is applied.” “. consistent with our values of equity and justice.”
Biden campaigned on ending the federal death penalty after it was resurrected by former President Donald J. Trump. Under the Biden administration, the Justice Department instituted a moratorium on federal executions, but the department also said this month that it would seek the death penalty against the white gunman who shot and killed 10 Black people in a racist attack at a convenience store. Buffalo Grocery Store.
Thursday’s execution raised the possibility that the method would also be examined by other states that face increasing problems obtaining lethal injection drugs from pharmaceutical companies due to pressure from medical groups, activists and lawyers. Mississippi and Oklahoma have authorized their prisons to carry out executions by nitrogen hypoxia if they cannot use lethal injection, although they have never tried it.
Alabama’s first attempt at this method comes after several failed or difficult executions in which executioners struggled to find veins in the men they were attempting to execute.
In 2022, the executioners tried for hours to access the veins of Joe Nathan James, and finally cut off one of his arms in what is known as a “cut” to administer the lethal drugs, according to a private autopsy. Since 2018, three death row inmates in the state, including Mr. Smith, have survived execution attempts due to difficulty inserting IVs.
Four days after failing to execute Mr. Smith in 2022, the state’s governor, Kay Ivey, a Republican, halted all executions in the state and asked the prison system, the Alabama Department of Corrections, to review its procedures. The state resumed executions in 2023 and killed two men by lethal injection.
In addition to Mr. Smith’s spiritual advisor, witnesses scheduled for the execution included Mr. Smith’s relatives and lawyers, prison officials and five Alabama reporters. Some relatives of the woman killed in the 1988 stabbing, Elizabeth Sennett, had also indicated they planned to attend. Two of her children had said publicly that they supported the execution and considered it necessary for a long time.
Sennett was stabbed 10 times in the attack by Smith and another man, according to court documents. Her husband, Charles Sennett Sr., had recruited a man to handle her murder, who in turn recruited Mr. Smith and a third man. Sennett arranged the murder in part to collect on an insurance policy he had taken out for his wife, according to court records. He had promised the men $1,000 each for the murder.
Mr. Sennett later committed suicide; One of the other men involved in the murder was executed by lethal injection in 2010, and the third was sentenced to life in prison and died in 2020.
Katie Rogers contributed reports.
