{"id":23097,"date":"2024-01-26T05:52:03","date_gmt":"2024-01-26T11:52:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=23097"},"modified":"2024-01-26T05:52:08","modified_gmt":"2024-01-26T11:52:08","slug":"alabama-executes-kenneth-smith-using-untested-method-of-nitrogen-gas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=23097","title":{"rendered":"Alabama executes Kenneth Smith using untested method of nitrogen gas"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Lawyers failed to persuade courts to stay the execution, arguing procedure amounted to cruel and unusual punishment<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alabama has carried out the first execution of a death row inmate in the US using nitrogen gas, an untested procedure which the prisoner\u2019s lawyers had argued amounted to a form of cruel and unusual punishment banned under the US constitution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kenneth Smith, 58, was pronounced dead at 8.25pm on Thursday evening at an Alabama prison after breathing pure nitrogen gas through a face mask to cause oxygen deprivation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alabama claimed that the new nitrogen gas method was \u201cperhaps the most humane method of execution ever devised\u201d. But eyewitness statements from reporters present in the death chamber suggested that Smith\u2019s death was anything but humane.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Marty Roney of the\u2002Montgomery Advertiser<\/a> reported that between 7.57pm local time and 8.01pm \u201cSmith writhed and convulsed on the gurney. He took deep breaths, his body shaking violently with his eyes rolling in the back of his head.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Roney\u2019s report continued: \u201cSmith clenched his fists, his legs shook \u2026 He seemed to be gasping for air. The gurney shook several times.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The execution had been scheduled to begin at 6pm local time at the Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, Alabama, but it was delayed as the US supreme court weighed his final appeal. Shortly before 8pm, the court denied that appeal, allowing the execution to proceed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who along with two other liberal justices dissented, wrote: \u201cHaving failed to kill Smith on its first attempt, Alabama has selected him as its \u2018guinea pig\u2019 to test a method of execution never attempted before. The world is watching.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Smith\u2019s lawyers had argued that to go ahead with executing him under these untried conditions would violate constitutional protections against cruelty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The prisoner also unsuccessfully argued that he was being dealt with doubly unlawfully by dint of him having been subjected to an execution procedure once before. In November 2022, the state strapped him for four hours to the gurney and punctured his arms and legs in a failed attempt to find a vein through which to kill him using lethal medications.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That placed Smith in a highly rare class of an inmate who could describe what it was like to survive an execution<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The new death protocol adopted by Alabama and used to kill Smith involved placing an industrial-style respirator mask over the prisoner\u2019s head and then forcing him to breathe pure nitrogen. The technique, known as \u201cnitrogen hypoxia\u201d, leads to fatal oxygen deprivation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Days before he was executed, Smith told the Guardian in a phone call from his prison cell that he was not ready to die. He had been diagnosed with PTSD caused by his first failed execution attempt, and was suffering from sleeplessness and anxiety.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said he was terrified by the prospect of vomiting in the mask leading to death by drowning on the contents of his own stomach, a gruesome possibility that was raised by his lawyers in court.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In his Guardian interview, Smith also appealed to the American people to show mercy for those like him facing judicial killings. \u201cYou know, brother, I\u2019d say, \u2018Leave room for mercy\u2019. That just doesn\u2019t exist in Alabama. Mercy really doesn\u2019t exist in this country when it comes to difficult situations like mine,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The execution took about 22 minutes. Smith appeared to remain conscious for several of those minutes, at times appearing to shake and writhe on the gurney and pull against his restraints. This was followed by several minutes of heavy breathing, until his breathing was no longer perceptible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a final statement, Smith said: \u201cTonight Alabama causes humanity to take a step backwards. \u2026 I\u2019m leaving with love, peace and light.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He made the \u201cI love you sign\u201d with his hands toward family members who were witnesses. \u201cThank you for supporting me. Love, love all of you,\u201d Smith said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Smith was convicted of the 1988 murder-for-hire of a pastor\u2019s wife, Elizabeth Sennett. He and another man were each allegedly paid $1,000 to kill her by Charles Sennett, a minister in the Church of Christ who went on to take his own life after suspicion fell on him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the run-up to the execution, Alabama had come under a raft of domestic and international criticism. Hundreds of Jewish clergy and community leaders across the US signed a letter organised by L\u2019chaim!, Jews Against the Death Penalty, calling for a halt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cJust the idea of using gas for executions is an affront to our community,\u201d the co-founder of L\u2019chaim, Mike Zoosman, said. \u201cThe Nazi legacy of experimentation to find the most expeditious way to rid our community of undesirable prisoners is an undercurrent for anyone who is aware of that history that should not be repeated in Alabama, or anywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Smith\u2019s pending death was also denounced by UN experts on arbitrary executions and torture who fiercely opposed<\/a> the use of what they decried as a human experiment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In his Guardian interview before his death Smith said he feared that if Alabama carried out his execution it would put the new killing method of nitrogen gas on the map. He had a warning for his fellow Americans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI fear that it will be successful, and you will have a nitrogen system coming to your state very soon,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Theguardian<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lawyers failed to persuade courts to stay the execution, arguing procedure amounted to cruel and unusual punishment Alabama has carried out the first execution of a death row inmate in the US using nitrogen gas, an untested procedure which the prisoner\u2019s lawyers had argued amounted to a form of cruel and unusual punishment banned under […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":23098,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1154],"tags":[1903,2299,1723,26155,26153,25976,25462,26154,2660],"class_list":["post-23097","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trending","tag-alabama","tag-attorney","tag-court","tag-execution","tag-kenneth-smith","tag-nitrogen","tag-stay","tag-untested","tag-use"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23097","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23097"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23097\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23099,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23097\/revisions\/23099"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/23098"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23097"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23097"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23097"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}