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The US state of Alabama executed a convicted murderer with nitrogen gas on Friday as per the IST. The Alabama state said the method would be humane, but critics called it cruel and experimental. Kenneth Eugene Smith, who was sentenced to death in 1996 for a 1988 murder, was pronounced dead at 7:55 am (IST) on Friday.
For the first time, a new method has been used to kill a prisoner in the United States which has put the country at the forefront of the debate over capital punishment again. The US officials have been using lethal injection to kill prisoners, a method introduced in 1982.
The state had previously attempted to execute Smith, but the lethal injection was called off at the last minute because authorities couldn’t connect an IV line.
On Friday morning (as per Indian timings), Smith was declared dead after breathing pure nitrogen gas through a face mask to cause oxygen deprivation at an Alabama prison.
“Having failed to kill Smith on its first attempt, Alabama has selected him as its guinea pig’ to test a method of execution never attempted before. The world is watching,” Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote.
In his final hours, Smith met with family members and his spiritual adviser. He ate a last meal of T-bone steak, hash browns, toast, and eggs slathered in A1 steak sauce, according to media reports.
Kenneth Eugene Smith’s case
Smith was one of two men convicted in the 1988 murder-for-hire slaying of Elizabeth Sennett. Prosecutors said he and the other man 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.
Sennett, 45, was found dead March 18, 1988, in her home with eight stab wounds in the chest and one on each side of her neck, according to the coroner. Her husband, Charles Sennett Sr., killed himself when the investigation focused on him as a suspect, according to court documents. John Forrest Parker, the other man convicted in the slaying, was executed in 2010.
Smith’s 1989 conviction was overturned, but he was convicted again in 1996. The jury recommended a life sentence by 11-1, but a judge overrode that and sentenced him to death.
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Published: 26 Jan 2024, 08:31 AM IST
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