ATMORE, Ala. (WHNT) – Kenneth Eugene Smith, the man convicted of a 1988 murder-for-hire killing, became the first known person to be executed by nitrogen hypoxia on Thursday.
Alabama Governor Kay Ivey’s office confirmed the execution in a statement following a failed appeal to the United States Supreme Court.
“The execution was lawfully carried out by nitrogen hypoxia, the method previously requested by Mr. Smith as an alternative to lethal injection. At long last, Mr. Smith got what he asked for, and this case can finally be put to rest. I pray that Elizabeth Sennett’s family can receive closure after all these years dealing with that great loss,” the statement read, in part.
Smith had been scheduled for lethal injection in 2022, though the procedure was called off at the last minute when authorities experienced trouble with the IV line.
The previously-unused procedure called for a respirator mask to be placed over Smith’s face substituting his air intake with pure nitrogen gas, causing him to die from lack of oxygen. The process was the first attempt to use a new execution method since the 1982 introduction of lethal injection, now the most common execution method in the United States.
This week, Smith’s attorneys had filed another petition to the United States Supreme Court requesting a stay of execution. The petition states that Smith has “demonstrated that ADOC’s planned use of a one-size-fits-all mask creates a substantial risk that he will be left in a persistent vegetative state, experience a stroke, or asphyxiate on his own vomit.”
Smith’s petition for a stay was denied by the Supreme Court.
The application was presented to the whole court, and three justices – Sotomayor, Kagan and Jackson – dissented.
“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,” Smith and the Rev. Jeff Hood, Smith’s spiritual adviser, added in a statement Thursday afternoon.
The state of Alabama had given the 58-year-old a 30-hour time frame beginning at midnight on Thursday, January 25, 2024, and expiring at 6:00 a.m. on Friday, January 26, 2024 to complete the execution.
Lauren Layton of Nexstar’s WHNT was the only broadcast journalist selected to witness the execution and the only North Alabama TV reporter who will be at William C. Holman Correctional Facility. Five family members and friends will witness Smith’s execution.
Smith had nine 9 visitors on Wednesday and Thursday and received a call from his wife on both days, the Alabama Department of Corrections (ADOC) said.
On Wednesday, Smith refused breakfast and received a lunch tray but did not eat it. ADOC said he received an evening meal and ate it partially. On Thursday, Smith accepted breakfast and a final meal which consisted of steak, hash browns and eggs.
Alabama is one of three states, alongside Oklahoma and Mississippi, that authorized the use of nitrogen hypoxia in executions. Alabama approved the method in 2018, but did not have an approved protocol until August 2023.
Smith was charged for the murder-for-hire-killing of Elizabeth Dorelene Sennett in Colbert County in 1988. Court records show Smith says he was paid $1,000 for the killing by the victim’s husband, Colbert County minister Charles Sennett Sr.
Documents say the county coroner testified that Elizabeth Sennett was stabbed eight times in the chest and once on each side of the neck. She also has numerous other abrasions and cuts.
Charles Sennett killed himself before facing charges.
Smith was initially convicted of capital murder in 1989 and the jury, at the time, recommended he be sentenced to death but that conviction was overturned on appeal. He was retried and convicted of capital murder again in 1996.
A jury recommended Smith be sentenced to life in prison in an 11-1 vote, but the judge in the case overrode the decision and sentenced him to death.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
