Inmate put to death by new controversial Death Row execution method survived first attempt
Lucy Devine
Featured Image Credit: Alabama Department of Corrections/Getty stock
Kenneth Eugene Smith was executed on Thursday (January 25) by a new controversial execution method.
Smith died at the age of 58 at the Holman Correction Facility Center in Alabama, following his conviction of the 1988 murder of Elizabeth Sennett.
Smith was the first human to face death by nitrogen hypoxia; a method some critics described as 'inhumane'.
Advert
Appealing the decision, Smith had called for the state to 'stop [the execution]', however, the US Court declined his appeal and request to halt the execution.
The method involved a mask being placed over Smith's face, where pure nitrogen gas was administered, causing oxygen deprivation.
Following one last phone call with his wife, Smith was taken to the chamber on Thursday evening where the mask was fitted and he said his final words.
He was pronounced dead at 8:25pm CST - 22 minutes after the nitrogen gas was first administered.
According to a reporter who was present, Smith began to to ‘write and convulse’ on the gurney.
It's also said he ‘took deep breaths’ and that he ‘clenched his fists’ while his ‘legs shook’.
“He seemed to be gasping for air,” he claimed. “The gurney shook several times.”
After being on death row for 36 years, Smith had survived a prior execution attempt in 2022.
In November, he suffered a failed execution attempt after executioners struggled to find a vein to administer a lethal injection.
It was reported that Smith was strapped to the gurney at the Holman Correctional Facility in Alabama for four hours - an experience that he said gave him post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
It's also reported that Smith was left 'shaking, sweating, struggling to breathe and dizzy'.
The execution was later abandoned when the state's death warrant expired at midnight.
Following the incident, he told the Guardian how the ordeal had affected him, explaining that the 'what-if games you play in the middle of the night', which resulted in him struggling to sleep.
He also suffered with recurring nightmares of being taken back to the execution chamber, adding: "All I had to do was walk into the room in the dream for it to be overwhelming. I was absolutely terrified.
"It kept coming up.
"I'm still suffering from the first execution and now we're doing this again.
"They won't let me even have post-traumatic stress disorder - you know, this is ongoing stress disorder.
"A person who did that would probably be seen as a monster.
"But when the government does it, you know, that's something else."