An Alabama prisoner could become the first inmate to be executed with a controversial new death penalty method.
Hitman Kenneth Smith was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death for his crimes in 1989 and again in 1996.
He was hired by Charles Sennett, the pastor of the Westside Church of Christ in Sheffield, Alabama, in 1988, who wanted his wife Elizabeth murdered in exchange for a large insurance policy.
The reverend was having an extramarital affair at the time and was in significant financial debt.
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Smith and his friend, John Parker, were each paid $1,000 to conduct the murder.
Elizabeth was ambushed, punched, beaten, and bludgeoned, and stabbed over and over again with a six-inch survival knife.
The wife suffered a total of ten stab wounds—eight to her chest and two to her neck—which proved fatal.
Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall filed a motion with the Alabama Supreme Court on August 25 seeking an execution date for Kenneth Eugene Smith by means of new death penalty method - nitrogen hypoxia.
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The method involves an inmate breathing in only nitrogen, which deprives them of oxygen and kills them.
The use of nitrogen hypoxia is authorized by three states (Alabama, Oklahoma and Mississippi) but has never been used.
“It is a travesty that Kenneth Smith has been able to avoid his death sentence for nearly 35 years after being convicted of the heinous murder-for-hire slaying of an innocent woman, Elizabeth Sennett,” said Attorney General Marshall.
Smith was previously scheduled to be executed on November 17, 2022.
"On June 24, 2022, the state filed a motion to set smith's execution. This Court granted that motion on September 30, 2022, setting Smiths execution for November 17, 2022," reads the court filing.
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"During this period, Smith raised and litigated a method-of-execution challenge to Alabama's use of lethal injection.
"After substantial litigation, the United States Supreme Court permitted Smith's execution to go forward late in the evening of November 17, 2022, but the State was unable to obtain the intravenous access required by Alabama's protocol within the time remaining before the death warrant expired.
"A federal challenge to Alabama's use of lethal injection as a method of execution for Smith remains pending in the Federal District Court for the MiddleDistrict of Alabama.
"Smith's prayer for relief in that matter seeks execution by means of nitrogen hypoxia, a means of execution authorized under Alabama law."