A killer who murdered a minister’s wife in 1988 will become America’s first death row inmate to be executed by nitrogen.
Alabama officials want to put Kenneth Eugene Smith, 58, to death by nitrogen hypoxia, forcing him to breathe only nitrogen, depriving them of oxygen and causing them to die.
Several states have approved the method, which is supposed to be painless, but it has never been used.
Critics have said authorities would “experiment with a method never used before – but even Smith has said he would prefer death by nitrogen to lethal injection.”
The Alabama Attorney General’s office on Friday asked the state Supreme Court to set an execution date for Smith. The lawsuit revealed that Alabama intends to put him to death by nitrogen hypoxia.
This undated photo, provided by the Alabama Department of Corrections, shows inmate Kenneth Eugene Smith, who was convicted in 1988 of murdering a pastor’s wife for hire. Smith, 57, will receive a lethal injection Thursday at a South Alabama jail
The Alabama Attorney General’s office on Friday asked the state Supreme Court to set an execution date for Smith. The lawsuit revealed that Alabama intends to put him to death by nitrogen hypoxia. This October 7, 2002 file photo shows the Alabama lethal injection chamber at the Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore
Smith was one of two men who paid $1,000 each to kill Elizabeth Sennett on behalf of her pastor, Charles Sennett Sr., who was in debt and wanted to collect life insurance money.
Nitrogen makes up 78% of the air breathed by humans and is harmless when inhaled with oxygen. Proponents of the new method have theorized that it would be painless.
Alabama approved the method in 2018 due to a shortage of drugs used to carry out lethal injections, but the state has not yet attempted to use this method to carry out a death sentence.
Oklahoma and Mississippi also allowed nitrogen hypoxia, but did not use it.
The revelation that Alabama is ready to use nitrogen hypoxia is expected to spark another round of legal battles over the method’s constitutionality.
Smith was one of two men who paid $1,000 each to kill Elizabeth Sennett on behalf of her pastor, Charles Sennett Sr., who was in debt and wanted to collect life insurance money.
John Forrest Parker, the other convicted murderer, was executed in 2010.
Charles Sennett, the victim’s husband and Church of Christ pastor, committed suicide as the investigation began to focus on him as a possible suspect, court documents show.
Smith, 57, was scheduled to receive a lethal injection at a South Alabama prison in November, but officials were unable to properly carry out the procedure.
The Equal Justice Initiative, a legal advocacy group that has dealt with issues surrounding the death penalty, said Alabama has a history of “botched and flawed executions and attempted executions” and that “experimenting with a method never used before is a terrible idea.”
“No state in the country has executed anyone using nitrogen hypoxia, and Alabama is in no position to experiment with a completely unproven and unused method of executing someone,” said Angie Setzer, a senior attorney with the Equal Justice Initiative. .
John Forrest Parker, the other man convicted of the murder, was executed in 2010
Prosecutors said Smith and John Forrest Parker were each paid $1,000 to kill Elizabeth Sennett for husband Charles Sennett Sr., who was deeply in debt and wanted to collect insurance premiums.
Sennett’s husband, pastor of the Westside Church of Christ in Sheffield, committed suicide a week after her death as the murder investigation began to focus on him as a suspect, court documents show.
Alabama attempted to execute Smith by lethal injection last year, but postponed the execution due to problems inserting an IV into his veins. It was the second case in the state within two months of failing to execute an inmate, and the third since 2018.
The day after Smith’s aborted execution, Governor Kay Ivey announced a pause for the executions to conduct an internal review of the lethal injection procedures. The state resumed lethal injections last month.
“It is a travesty that Kenneth Smith managed to avoid his death sentence for nearly 35 years after being convicted of the gruesome murder of an innocent woman, Elizabeth Sennett,” Attorney General Steve Marshall said in a statement Friday. .
Alabama has been developing the implementation method for nitrogen hypoxia for several years, but has disclosed little about its plans.
The Attorney General’s file did not detail how the execution would be carried out. Corrections Commissioner John Hamm told reporters last month that a protocol was nearing completion.
A number of Alabama inmates seeking to block their executions by lethal injection, including Smith, have argued that they should be allowed to die from nitrogen hypoxia.
Robert Grass, an attorney representing Smith, declined to comment Friday.
Sennett was found dead on March 18, 1988, in the home she shared with her husband on Coon Dog Cemetery Road in Colbert County, Alabama.
The murder and the revelations about who was behind it rocked the small northern Alabama community.