Alabama condemned for nitrogen gas execution: ‘They intended to torture him’
GuardianJan 26
Kenneth Eugene Smith, an Alabama death row inmate who in 1989 was convicted of murdering Elizabeth Sennett, became the first person in the US to be executed using nitrogen gas Thursday after his last-minute appeals failed. Smith was pronounced dead at 8:25 p.m. ET.
Alabama previously attempted to execute Smith by lethal injection in 2022 — the method used in the majority of US executions — but called off the execution after issues injecting him delayed the procedure. Officials were concerned they wouldn't complete the execution before Smith's death warrant expired.
This was torture, plain and simple, and no state in any country should've been permitted to carry out an execution in this manner. In conflict with what Alabama predicted, Smith didn't lose consciousness in seconds and instead convulsed in an unprecedented manner on the gurney. He didn't die for nearly 22 minutes. Alabama has set the US back.
Like his accomplice before him, Smith has finally been made to pay for his crime — a heinous act that the victim's family has had to live with for decades. Nothing out of the ordinary happened during this execution, and the involuntary movement was expected. This first case of execution by nitrogen gas was a success.
There's a 50% chance that the US police-to-prison spending ratio will be 1.83 in 2030, according to the Metaculus prediction community.