The Supreme Court has rejected Kenneth Eugene Smith’s Hail Mary request for a stay of execution, meaning he will become the first person in history to be executed with nitrogen gas.
Smith was scheduled to be executed at 6 p.m. tonight at the William C. Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, Alabama, although his death warrant is extended until 6 a.m.
The Supreme Court voted 6-3 to allow the execution to take place, with the three Democratic-appointed justices, Sonia Sotomayor, Ketanji Brown Jackson and Elana Kagan, dissenting from their conservative colleagues.
Smith had begged for it to be cancelled, citing his fears that the experimental gassing method would cause him excruciating pain or cause him to vomit. Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall insisted the controversial method would be “painless” for Smith.
As Smith now heads to the execution chamber, his prison pastor John Ewell told DailyMail.com that he is “really struggling” to accept his fate.
Kenneth Eugene Smith was sentenced to death in 1996 after admitting to the contract murder of a pastor’s wife who was beaten and stabbed in 1988.
Smith was sentenced to death in 1996 for the murder-for-hire of Elizabeth Sennett, 45, who was found dead on March 18, 1988, in her home in Colbert County, Alabama. She had been stabbed eight times in the chest and once on each side of her neck.
The Supreme Court yesterday denied a request for a stay. He made another request today as his execution approached, however the judges denied his desperate appeal and sent him to chambers.
One of the main reasons Alabama has turned to nitrogen gas for Smith’s execution has been the widespread difficulties American prisons have had in obtaining lethal injection drugs in recent years.
Despite warnings from human rights groups about the use of the method, AG Marshall insisted that Smith’s fears were unfounded, a decision ultimately agreed to by SCOTUS.
In her dissent, Justice Sotomayor wrote that she felt the method of execution was cruel, since Smith will wear a mask that has never been placed on his face until the moment he is tied up, and officials will not intervene even if he begins to suffocate his own vomit.
Smith will also have the opportunity to say his last words, but will be forced to say them through the gas mask before the nitrogen is activated.
Sotomayor considered Smith a “surprising candidate” for the untested method: His previous execution scheduled for November 2022 was canceled after painful hours of failed attempts to inject him with an IV.
She said he has been suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder since he was released from the execution table, “reliving those hours strapped to the gurney.”
“Failing to kill Smith on its first attempt, Alabama has selected him as its ‘guinea pig’ to test a method of execution never before attempted,” Sotomayor wrote.
“The world is watching.”
Kenneth Smith will be executed with nitrogen gas this week, something the UN has called “torture” and scientists have largely banned in animal experiments.
This Oct. 7, 2002, file photo shows the Alabama lethal injection chamber at the Holman Correctional Center in Atmore, Alabama. Kenneth Smith, 58, is scheduled to be executed on January 25, 2024.
Marshall previously argued that nitrogen hypoxia is a “peaceful” way to end a human life, citing experts including euthanasia expert Dr. Philip Nitschke.
Nitschke had testified for Smith’s legal team, who claimed the risks were because the gas was administered through a one-size-fits-all gas mask.
However, Marshall said the state’s mask has been inspected and is tight enough to ensure no oxygen leaks, which would keep Smith barely breathing while being suffocated by nitrogen gas.
He cited Nitschke’s support for nitrogen hypoxia in assisted suicide as further evidence of how painless the execution will be.
‘Among the many problems for Smith was his star witness, Dr. Philip Nitschke, who could well have testified on behalf of the State.
“Before joining Smith’s cause, Dr. Nitschke said that critics of the Alabama method were ‘misrepresenting the science,’” Marshall wrote.
Dr. Nitschke, who has been referred to colloquially as ‘Dr. Death’ – said in the past that the method was ‘quick’, ‘effective’, ‘peaceful’ and ‘reliable’.
Elizabeth’s preacher husband, Charles Sennett Sr., who was in debt and terrified she would find out.
He also dismissed Smith’s fears about vomiting inside the mask.
‘Clutching at straws, Smith raised objections to the way the nitrogen would be delivered. First, he said the mask is too loose and will let air in. But the state allayed that concern when he introduced the mask.
‘Secondly, Smith said that in the precise few seconds between the moment the gas enters the mask and he loses consciousness, he will vomit and choke to death. But the district court found (twice) that Smith’s fear was “speculative,” “theoretical” and “improbable.”
‘Smith claimed that he might vomit during the execution because he suffers from nausea.
‘However, under cross-examination, Smith’s expert Katherine Porterfield admitted that Smith had not reported any vomiting. ‘
He added that if Smith vomits into his mask before the gas is administered, the medical team present will remove it and clean it.
If you vomit inside your mask once the gas is released, they will not intervene.
Smith said this is a “highly theoretical” scenario based on a “cascade of improbable events.”
Despite warnings from human rights organizations, Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall says execution is lighter than Smith deserves
The method of execution divided opinion, with some feeling that Smith’s 1988 crime was worthy of his place on death row.
Smith, 22, was one of two men convicted of the murder-for-hire of Elizabeth Sennett, 45, the wife of preacher Charles Sennet Sr., who paid men to kill his wife in a plot insurance.
His initial 1989 conviction was overturned on appeal, but he was retried and convicted again in 1996.
Prosecutors said he and John Forrest Parker were each paid $1,000 for the murder, and that Sennett’s husband hoped to collect on her insurance.
She was found dead on March 18 of that year in her home in Colbert County with eight stab wounds to the chest and one on each side of the neck.
After discovering that he was suspected of being involved in the plot, Charles Sennett Sr. committed suicide.
John Forrest Parker, the other man convicted of the murder, was executed in 2010.
Smith was originally scheduled to be executed on November 17, 2022, but his lethal injection was a failure.
Smith recalled feeling “great pain” because those tasked with injecting the lethal drugs (midazolam hydrochloride, rocuronium bromide and potassium chloride) were stabbing his muscle instead of finding a vein.
Smith has since said that the incessant beatings became so ridiculous that they became a farce, especially when one of the executioners finally asked Smith to squeeze his hand so that the vein would stand out better, a request Smith refused.
Unable to find a second usable vein, Smith’s stretcher was tilted so that his feet pointed upward in what he assumed was an attempt to draw blood to his head and leave a vein in his neck more pronounced.
They left him for several minutes before the IV came back with an even larger needle in an attempt to connect the so-called central line (or central venous catheter), which is much longer than a normal IV and goes all the way to the end. vein near or inside the heart.
Smith reported that this pain became so unbearable after multiple attempts to successfully use the larger needle that it shook and became wet.
The planned use of nitrogen gas for the first time sparked outrage in the weeks leading up to Thursday’s scheduled execution among human rights and prison reform advocates.
Reprieve, an international human rights organization focused on imprisonment, told DailyMail.com that Smith’s planned execution was a sham.
“The execution with nitrogen gas is the latest attempt to hide the state violence that claims a human life,” the organization stated.
‘Despite nearly fifty years of horrific scenes in the execution chamber as prisoners die agonizing deaths, advocates of capital punishment cling to the lie that it can be carried out humanely.
“Alabama is once again trying to hide the reality of what happens in the execution chamber, changing methods to avoid having to answer questions about what went wrong last time, and now proposing to use a method that has been rejected by veterinarians as a way to kill animals.
‘Witnesses will not be able to tell how much Kenneth Smith suffers as the nitrogen kills him: like the previous lethal injection protocol, the nitrogen protocol is specifically designed to mask the pain.
“The state of Alabama tortured Mr. Smith once, stabbing him with needles for hours, and by using him as a guinea pig for a dangerous and untested new execution method, it is torturing him again.”