Kenneth Eugene Smith, 58, convicted in the 1988 murder-for-hire killing of a preacher’s wife, was executed by asphyxiation with nitrogen gas at the William C. Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore on Thursday. Photo via Alabama Department of Corrections | License Photo
The State of Alabama executed Kenneth Eugene Smith with nitrogen gas Thursday night, making him not only the first U.S. inmate to be put to death this year but the first person to ever die by the untested and controversial execution method in the United States.
Inhaling nitrogen gas causes what is known as hypoxia, or a deficiency in the amount of oxygen reaching the tissues. Advertisement
Smith, 58, was executed Thursday for killing 45-year-old Elizabeth Sennet in March of 1988 in a murder-for-hire scheme that earned him $1,000. The 1996 trial jury had voted 11-to-1 in recommendation that Smith be sentenced to life in prison, but the judge gave him death in a judicial move that has since been outlawed in the state.
Alabama attempted to execute Smith by lethal injection in November of 2022, but with Smith tied to the gurney and after the state failed to find a vein over 90 minutes, his execution was called off.
Smith died by hypoxia after a last-ditch judicial effort to avoid his sentence from being carried out was denied earlier Thursday by the Supreme Court.
He was pronounced dead at 8:25 p.m., Alabama Attorney General Steven Marshal said. Advertisement
“Justice has been served,” Marshall said in a statement.
“Tonight, Kenneth Smith was put to death for the heinous act he committed over 35 years ago: the murder-for-hire slaying of Elizabeth Sennett, an innocent woman who was by all accounts a godly wife, a loving mother and grandmother and a beloved pillar of her community.”
This is a developing story.
