Alabama executes Kenneth Eugene Smith with nitrogen gas

An Alabama death row inmate was executed on Thursday night, becoming the first person in the US to be put to death by nitrogen gas, officials confirmed.

Kenneth Eugene Smith, 58, died at the Holman Prison in Atmore after the Supreme Court refused to block the experimental execution.

Smith was made to inhale the toxic gas through a mask, which deprived his body of oxygen until he suffocated.

He was pronounced dead at 8:25 p.m.

“Tonight Alabama causes humanity to take a step backwards. … I’m leaving with love, peace and light,” Smith said in a final statement.

He flashed an “I love you sign” with his hands toward family members who were in the room as witnesses.

“Thank you for supporting me. Love, love all of you,” he told them.

The execution took about 22 minutes in total, during several minutes of which Smith appeared to remain conscious, according to the Associated Press.

For at least two minutes, he appeared to writhe on the gurney, at times pulling against the restraints. He then breathed heavily for several minutes until his breath was no longer perceptible.

Smith spent more than three decades behind bars after he was convicted in the murder-for-hire of a preacher’s wife in 1988.

A federal appeals court rejected Smith’s second attempt to halt the execution on Wednesday, and the Supreme Court cleared the way at the last minute on Thursday.

He previously survived a botched lethal injection in the same death cell in November 2022, after doctors administering the deadly chemical concoction poked and prodded him trying to find the right vein for hours before it was called off.

Earlier this week, he told The Guardian that he’s “not ready” to die at the hands of the controversial method and was having nightmares ahead of his execution date.

“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,” the dead man told the paper.

Before his death, he met with family members and his spiritual adviser, Rev. Jeff Hood.

For his final meal, Smith scoffed down T-bone steak, hash browns, toast and eggs smothered in A1 steak sauce, Hood told the Associated Press.

“He’s terrified at the torture that could come. But he’s also at peace. One of the things he told me is he is finally getting out,” Hood said ahead of the execution.

Smith’s nitrogen gas execution is the first time a new method has been introduced since lethal injection was first used in 1982.

Drugs used in lethal injections have become hard to come by in recent years, leading Alabama to search for alternate means of execution. It settled on nitrogen gas.

Nitrogen gas had never been used to kill humans in the US until Thursday — and Alabama is just one of three states that permits its use for execution. 

The method is sometimes used to euthanize animals — and experts warned that using it on a prisoner would be a painful, inhumane way to die. The method even caught the eye of the United Nations, who urged Alabama to ditch its plans for Smith’s execution.

Smith’s attorneys argued that the state was using their client as a “test subject” for the execution method. They argued the execution violates the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment and deserves more legal scrutiny before it’s used on a person.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who along with two other liberal justices dissented in the Supreme Court’s decision, wrote on Thursday night: “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.”

Abraham Bonowitz, the co-founder of Death Penalty Action, likened Alabama’s “experimentation” on Smith to what the Nazis did to Jews during World War II.

Jeffrey Keller, president of the American College of Correctional Physicians, told The Post the execution is similar to placing a plastic bag over someone’s head — but instead of being poisoned by carbon dioxide, he will breathe in nitrogen.

“In essence, it’s the same thing,” he said.

Smith was one of two men convicted in the murder-for-hire of a preacher’s wife in 1988. Each man was paid $1,000 to kill Elizabeth Sennett on behalf of her husband, Charles Sennett, who wanted to cash out on insurance.

Sennet was found stabbed to death in her home. The preacher committed suicide a week after her death as detectives pursued him as a suspect.

The victim’s son, Charles Sennett Jr., said in an interview with WAAY-TV that Smith “has to pay for what he’s done.”

“And some of these people out there say, ‘Well, he doesn’t need to suffer like that.’ Well, he didn’t ask Mama how to suffer?” the son said. “They just did it. They stabbed her — multiple times.”

Twenty-four inmates were executed in the US in 2023, all by lethal injection.

With Post Wires