Thursday night, the State of Alabama broke new ground as it became the first jurisdiction on the planet to use nitrogen hypoxia as the method to execute Kenneth Eugene Smith for a 1988 murder.
Smith and two accomplices were hired to kill Elizabeth Sennett by her husband, the Reverend Charles Sennett, Jr. The staged home invasion at the crime scene didn’t fool anyone, and within a week, Smith and his cohorts were in jail, and their employer committed suicide shortly after being questioned by police.
Alabama tried to execute Smith in November 2022 but failed. The state then set out to find a foolproof method of execution and decided upon nitrogen hypoxia as more humane and less error-prone than lethal injection.
BACKGROUND: Alabama Set to Try First Ever Execution by Nitrogen Hypoxia on Thursday. Whatever Could Go Wrong?
Much like New York’s first experience using electrocution for…
