Alabama joined a lineup of the world’s most notorious human rights violators by being the first state to use nitrogen gas to execute a condemned prisoner who suffered intense pain before dying.
“The death penalty is a violation of human rights, and we condemn the cruel execution of Kenneth Smith in Alabama,” Amnesty International declared on its website, which also tracks global human abuses by nations including China, Iran, Russia and Myanmar. “This new and untested method follows several botched attempts at executions by lethal injection in Alabama, including a previously botched attempt to execute Kenneth Smith a mere 14 months ago.”
Smith’s Jan. 25 execution stemmed from a conviction for his part in a 1988 murder-for-hire scheme that resulted in the stabbing death of Elizabeth Sennett. The jury’s 11-1 recommendation of life in prison was overruled by a judge who imposed the death penalty under a now-banned practice known as judicial override.
The jury’s 11-1 recommendation of life in prison was overruled by a judge who imposed the death penalty under a now-banned practice known as judicial override.
The state’s failed attempt to execute Smith in 2022 began the search for a new execution method. That led to nitrogen hypoxia, a gas untested in capital cases but known to cause injury and death in industrial accidents.
The experimental nature of the gas, and Alabama’s secrecy around how it planned to kill Smith with it, formed the basis of unsuccessful last-minute appeals to the Alabama and U.S. high courts.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor
“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,” U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote in a dissent joined by justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson. “This court yet again permits Alabama to ‘experiment … with a human life,’ while depriving Smith of ‘meaningful discovery’ on meritorious constitutional claims.”
And by all accounts, Smith suffered intensely during his execution, just as his legal team and anti-death penalty advocates had warned.
“Though state attorneys had assured courts that the method would cause ‘unconsciousness in seconds,’ witnesses reported that Mr. Smith appeared awake for several minutes after the nitrogen gas began,” the Death Penalty Information Center reported. “They observed that he ‘shook and writhed’ for at least two minutes before breathing heavily for another few minutes.”
The execution elicited a range of responses, in some cases even hope, from numerous anti-death penalty and human rights organizations, including Project Hope to Abolish the Death Penalty, an organization run by and for Alabama’s death-row inmates.
“Our greatest thanks go to Kenny who taught us that love, hope and faith are more powerful than death. We will not forget! R.I.P., Kenny! We love you,” the prisoners said in a statement posted the day Smith was executed.
The prisoners also said they take hope from the condolences and support they received from groups such as Death Penalty Action, Sant’Egidio in Rome, Italy, the Alabama NAACP, Jews Against the Death Penalty and the Evangelical Network of Equal Justice USA.
“We thank all of you who wrote, faxed, tweeted and called the governor to let her know that Alabama does not kill in our name. We thank everyone who organized and attended vigils around the state and who joined with us from abroad.”
Earlier this month, the United Nations expressed alarm at Alabama’s plan to use nitrogen gas in an execution, adding that doing so would violate international conventions against torture.
“Botched executions, lack of transparency of execution protocols and the use of untested drugs to execute prisoners in the U.S. have continuously drawn the attention of the U.N. mechanisms, including special procedures,” the UN’s office of human rights said.
Sarah Craft
Sarah Craft, EJUSA’s death penalty program director, deplored the state’s decision to ignore pleas for compassion in Smith’s case.
“Alabama went to extraordinary lengths to execute Kenny Smith, ultimately opting for a United Nations-condemned method last night,” she said. “Imagine if the state put that kind of effort into creating real safety in Alabama communities. Imagine what kind of life could Alabama build for its residents if the state focused on preventing violence in the first place and helping communities heal when harm does occur.”
Yasmin Cader, deputy legal director at the American Civil Liberties Union, said Smith essentially suffocated to death with the nitrogen gas.
“It’s past time for our country to put an end to the death penalty instead of inventing new and more heinous ways of carrying it out.”
“Alabama’s execution of Kenneth Smith in a horrific, reckless and untested manner is a profound illustration of the barbaric practice of capital punishment,” she said. “It’s past time for our country to put an end to the death penalty instead of inventing new and more heinous ways of carrying it out.”
The Catholic Mobilizing Network lamented that “the whole world was watching” as Smith died and as Alabama officials recommended nitrogen gas for use in other states.
Krisanne Murphy
“Today, we mourn the deaths of two people whose lives were unfairly taken from them in an act of violence: Elizabeth Sennett and Kenny Smith,” said Krisanne Vaillancourt Murphy, the organization’s executive director. “We must ask ourselves, how many more executions will it take until we see that returning death for death is not justice? It’s vengeance.”
Smith’s execution illuminated the faults inherent in the death penalty, and especially so in Alabama where 80% of Death Row inmates did not receive unanimous verdicts for death, the Equal Justice Initiative said.
“Alabama consistently has one of the nation’s highest per capita execution rates. With 72 executions and nine exonerations since 1976, Alabama has a shocking error rate: for every eight people executed, one has been exonerated.”
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