Alabama has executed Kenneth Eugene Smith using nitrogen gas for the first time in history, a method condemned by human rights experts as a potential form of torture. The convicted murderer was pronounced dead at 8:25 p. m.
on January 25, 2024, at the William C. Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, after a 29-minute procedure that witnesses described as violent.
Smith, 58, was put to death for the 1988 murder of Elizabeth Sennett, a pastor’s wife. His execution followed a failed lethal injection attempt in 2022 and a series of last-minute appeals denied by the U. S.
Supreme Court. The state of Alabama had never before used nitrogen hypoxia to end a human life.
The crime began with a betrayal inside the Sennett household. Elizabeth’s husband, Reverend Charles Sennett Sr. , was drowning in debt and having an 𝒶𝒻𝒻𝒶𝒾𝓇.
He took out a large life insurance policy on his wife and hired Billy Gray Williams to find a killer. Williams brought in Kenneth Smith and John Forrest Parker, paying them $1,000 each.
On March 18, 1988, Smith and Parker drove to the Sennett home in Colbert County, Alabama. Court records show Smith was sharpening a survival knife as they traveled. They attacked Elizabeth inside her home, beating and stabbing her, then left her unconscious.
When Reverend Sennett returned, he found her still alive.
Investigators later concluded that the pastor delivered the final wound himself. Elizabeth Sennett died one week later. As pressure mounted, Charles Sennett Sr.
took his own life. Police found the Sennett family VCR in Smith’s home, directly linking him to the attack.
Smith was arrested, charged with capital murder, and tried twice. The first trial ended in a conviction in 1989. A second trial in 1996 again found him guilty.
But the jury, by an 11-to-1 vote, recommended a life sentence. At that time, Alabama law allowed judges to override jury decisions.
Judge Kenneth Smith—no relation—overruled the jury and imposed the death penalty. Alabama abolished judicial override in 2017, but the change was not retroactive. Co-conspirator John Forrest Parker was also sentenced to death and executed by lethal injection on June 10, 2010.
Smith’s first scheduled execution on November 17, 2022, ended in failure. Execution teams could not set the required intravenous lines within the warrant’s time limit. But the state had already strapped Smith to the gurney and begun the process.
At 7:57 p. m. , guards ended Smith’s final phone call with his wife.
He was placed in handcuffs and taken to the execution chamber. Two minutes later, the 11th Circuit issued a stay of execution. Smith’s lawyers delivered the notice at 8:02 p.
m. The Alabama Department of Corrections responded with one word: “Noted.”
Smith remained strapped to the gurney for four hours until midnight. In a legal complaint afterward, he described the pain, confusion, and pleading for an explanation. No one answered.
He thought they were executing him. The experience left him deeply traumatized.
As part of a legal settlement, Alabama agreed not to pursue lethal injection again. Smith was given the option to choose nitrogen hypoxia, a method never before used on a human being. The state’s protocol was shrouded in secrecy, sparking global concern.
Medical experts warned that the mask might not seal properly, allowing oxygen to leak in and prolonging death. Smith’s attorneys argued he could vomit inside the mask, leading to suffocation. In the weeks before execution, Smith himself was reportedly vomiting repeatedly.
The United Nations weighed in. Human rights experts called on Alabama to halt the execution, warning it could amount to torture or cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment under international law. The U.
S. Supreme Court denied every last-minute appeal.
Smith and his spiritual advisor, Reverend Jeff Hood, issued a joint statement the afternoon before his death. “The eyes of the world are on this impending moral apocalypse. Our prayer is that people will not turn their heads.
We simply cannot normalize the suffocation of each other.”
Elizabeth Sennett’s sons told CNN earlier that same day that they believed it was time for Smith’s sentence to be carried out. They said their mother had been forgotten in the debate over the execution method.
Smith spent his final 24 hours receiving visits from friends and family, including his wife, Deanna. Deanna Smith spoke to the press that evening. “While everybody was waiting for Christmas, all excited about Christmas, our family was waiting for the courts to decide the fate of my husband and whether he’s going to suffer or were they going to stand up and do the right thing.”
Kenneth Smith’s last meal was steak, hash browns, and eggs. At 7:56 p. m.
, the execution began. He was strapped to a gurney, arms extended, covered with a white sheet to his chest. A mask was fitted over his face, full coverage.
The mask muffled his voice, but through it, he spoke his final words. “Tonight, Alabama caused humanity to take a step backwards. I leave with love, peace, and light.
I love all of you. Thank you for supporting me.”
The nitrogen began to flow. Alabama officials had promised it would be swift and painless. They told courts he would lose consciousness almost immediately.
They said he would die within minutes. That is not what witnesses saw.
At 7:57 p. m. , one minute after the execution began, Smith’s body started thrashing against the restraints.
His whole body and head jerked violently back and forth. He clenched his fists. His legs shook.
He gasped for air.
His body lifted against the straps binding him to the gurney. Witnesses observed fluid inside the mask. Kenneth Eugene Smith was pronounced dead at 8:25 p.
m. It had taken 29 minutes.
The reaction was immediate and international. The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights condemned the execution, stating that nitrogen hypoxia as a method of execution amounted to a potential form of torture and degrading punishment.
UN Special Rapporteurs released a joint statement calling it a stark reminder of the barbaric nature of the death penalty. Advocates and legal organizations called for Alabama to halt any further nitrogen executions until a full review could be conducted.
The Alabama Attorney General’s office called it justice served. Elizabeth Sennett’s son, Michael, spoke at a press conference after the execution. He said, “All three of the people involved in this case, we have forgiven them.
Not today, but we have in the past.”
He also noted that Parker and Smith had been incarcerated for almost twice as long as he had known his mother. Despite the controversy, Alabama pressed forward. On September 26, 2024, just eight months after Smith’s death, Alan Eugene Miller became the second person in history to be executed by nitrogen hypoxia, also in Alabama.
Other states began exploring the method as well. What began as a controversy in one state had become a blueprint. This case leaves a lot to sit with.
Elizabeth Sennett was a real woman, a mother, a grandmother. She was murdered in her own home because her husband wanted out.
He was willing to pay $1,000 to make it happen. That is a fact. It is not up for debate.
What is up for debate is everything that happened in the 36 years that followed. A jury, 11 of 12 people, voted to spare Kenneth Smith’s life. A judge overruled them.
A man was strapped to a gurney for four hours in a failed execution. Then, on a winter night in Alabama, a mask was placed over his face, and he was killed using a method never before tested on a human being. Witnesses watched him writhe.
They watched him gasp. They watched his body fight against restraints for nearly half an hour. Now his death is a precedent.
Other states are watching. Other prisoners are waiting. His final words were, “Tonight, Alabama caused humanity to take a step backwards.”
The question remains: when a man is put to death in a way that even his executioners cannot fully explain, in a way that has never been done before, in a way that took 29 minutes while witnesses watched him suffer, is that justice?
Or is it something else? The world will be watching what happens next. Alabama’s attorney general has defended the method as constitutional and humane.
Prison officials say they will continue to use nitrogen hypoxia for other condemned inmates.
Human rights groups have filed new lawsuits seeking to block further executions. The U. S.
Supreme Court has so far declined to intervene. Meanwhile, the family of Elizabeth Sennett has asked for privacy. They have said they want to move on.
Kenneth Smith’s wife, Deanna, has vowed to continue fighting against the death penalty. She says her husband’s last words were not about anger but about love. She has asked people to remember that he was a human being.
The execution of Kenneth Eugene Smith has become a landmark case in the history of capital punishment. It has raised questions that may take years to answer. For now, the state of Alabama has carried out its sentence.
The debate over how America kills its condemned will not end with him.