Today, the state of Alabama will try again to kill Kenneth Eugene Smith. In one of the most bizarre capital punishment cases in the country, the state previously botched an execution of Smith. Everything about the case has been legally irregular in the effort to execute this convicted assassin.
Smith, 58, was convicted in a murder-for-hire case involving the brutal beating and stabbing of Elizabeth Sennett, 45, in 1988. Yet, the jury decided to give him life in prison rather than the death penalty. That was then overruled by the judge who sentenced him to death.
He has remained on death row since 1996. His appeals finally ran out in November 2022 and Alabama attempted to execute him. However, the staff could not find a good vein to use for the intravenous lines. It took so much time that the warrant period expired.
Smith then added a new wrinkle. He demanded death by nitrogen gas, the first such execution in history. That required years of approval of an new regimen and authority. When it was finally approved, Smith then objected to the use of nitrogen gas. The district court rejected the effort.
In that order, U.S. District Judge Austin Huffaker found that Smith was gaming the system through bait-and-switches:
“Now that Alabama is prepared to carry out his sentence using the method of execution he has consistently declared he prefers, the circumstances have changed. And what was once highly unlikely is now a certainty. With that change, Smith now seeks to enjoin the Defendants from carrying out his death sentence using the Protocol, arguing it unconstitutionally superadds pain such that the court should order the Defendants to amend it or execute him by firing squad, a ‘relatively uncommon and archaic’ method.”
In his denied petition to the U.S. Supreme Court, Smith focused on the cruel aspects of successive execution attempts — a process that was even more uncertain and stressful with the use of “a novel method of execution that has never been attempted by any state or the federal government.”
It failed after a petition to Justice Clarence Thomas. Kenneth Smith is now scheduled for execution today by his previously chosen method of execution.
My mind boggles over why some people wail and gnash their teeth over a murderer potentially being a little uncomfortable during an execution. I wonder if they afforded their victims the same concern ?
Why the fuss with finding the perfect drug – just use fentanyl
Agreed. That would be better. Probably buy it right outside the prison walls or in the visitor center.
Witness: “Most violent execution I’ve ever seen…”
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13010885/Kenneth-Eugene-Smith-Alabama-nitrogen-gas-execution-witness-view.html
whoever wrote that is a liar.. you can see videos of people dying from nitrogen narcosis while diving too deep.. it’s pretty painless and your brain simply starts to shut off.
The issue w the execution is that he knows it is coming and is fighting it as he dies.
Hence the attempts of holding of breath, and his actions. Which is why it took longer.
Had they hooked him up and told him that the execution was pushed by 15minutes and then left the room and would be back… Or that they had to check on some monitors and left the room…
he never would have known to attempt to hold his breath or to struggle.
The reports of it being a lethal/toxic gas… are wrong.
Comments of comparing it to smothering w a pillow are wrong too.
There the body is fighting to breath. Here it should not.
Here is a You Tube video of a witness to the execution describing what he saw.
https://youtu.be/WLS34BLQXjQ?si=Qr1mntaqlFfraqCU
It was grotesque, and predictably so, and should not be done again. Apparently even the guards were surprised by the struggling and thrashing, not what they were told to expect.
Doesn’t surprise me nor, probably, Estovir since it is basically suffocation. As I said, they could have done the same with a pillow or mattress, like killing The Princes in the Tower.
We seem to have an unusual surplus of stupid people in government and industry these days.
“Thou shall not kill.”
Sounds good to me.
“Doesn’t surprise me nor, probably, Estovir since it is basically suffocation. As I said, they could have done the same with a pillow or mattress, like killing The Princes in the Tower.”
I don’t know Young. Suffocation using a pillow or a mattress does not permit respiration and clearing of CO2. CO2 is the primary stimulus for breathing, so preventing the clearing of CO2 could cause thrashing. That doesn’t exclude other effects based on the physical action of restraint.
Nitrogen permits CO2 clearing and doesn’t affect the PH in the short term, which also stimulates respiration.
We see many people in the hospital with hypoxia that are not struggling. The chronic obstructive pulmonary patient who retains CO2 can commit suicide if he is on oxygen by increasing his oxygen flow, dying in his sleep. The primary source of breathing CO2 is not as active in these patients, so the secondary source, low oxygen, won’t kick in as plenty of oxygen is available. I don’t know any evidence that that is a painful death, and I bet a number of those chronic high CO2 patients commit suicide in this fashion.
The question remaining is, why the thrashing? We don’t know how the mask was attached, but one can assume that would only affect the length of time the person would live.
That leaves one possibility: post-mortem spasm. Some might say the person was acting, but it seems too unlikely based on the time he should have remained alive, with the ability to act seeming too short unless the mask was loose.
Merriam Webster: “the act of suffocating or state of being suffocated : stoppage of breathing.”
Breathing:
“muscles between the ribs contract and pull upward. This increases the size of the thoracic cavity and decreases the pressure inside. As a result, air rushes in and fills the lungs.” MedlinePlus
If you aren’t drawing air [20% oxygen] into your lungs you aren’t breathing and you are suffocating.
A pillow makes it more unpleasant [carbon dioxide] but the endpoint is the same. The mechanism of death is the same: Lack of oxygen kills.
Neither nitrogen nor carbon dioxide is a poison. Cyanide is. Some chemists die making cyanide when they are tempted to smell it. They bring the flask close, sniff it, fall unconscious immediately, breaking the flask when the curious chemist and flask hit the floor thus releasing more cyanide.
And they die. Do you think nitrogen or carbon dioxide can do that? No they can’t because they are not poisons. It’s a stupid way to execute anyone. California used to use cyanide and it worked. It’s a fast acting poison. Goring used it too. As for nitrogen, you might as well drown someone. Maybe use a keg of malmsey as the Duke of Clarence was said to be killed.
Theory is one thing but the actual experiment with nitrogen was gruesome. As Feynman once said, no matter how beautiful your theory is if the facts don’t fit it you need a new theory
S. Meyer, There is also a psychological component to this. Panic. The mask sounds similar to level 4 protection equipment. When a relatively new person dons it and is enclosed in a sealed environment a co-worker will scan his eyes to see if he is about to panic as a few others have done when sealed into those suits.
It is equipment prone to causing panic. How much more likely is panic when you know the mask over your face is designed to kill you. You thrash and try to shake or rub it loose but are trapped. Sounds like that happened in this case. It would be a nasty psychological torture even if you didn’t deprive someone of oxygen.
I am unsure of your point, Young. Yes, a person could thrash with the equipment on his head or a needle in his arm or while being seated in the electric chair, but we know when the nitrogen was provided. What we need to understand is when the thrashing began.
Did the nitrogen cause the thrashing? I doubt it. I was specific in my comment about suffocation: “Suffocation using a pillow or a mattress does not permit respiration and clearing of CO2.” CO2 is the primary mechanism that stimulates a person to breathe. Try holding your breath underwater and see how it feels. Next, hyperventilate and see how much longer it takes before you feel the effects of CO2. If someone holds you down, you will thrash trying to get to the surface.
The pillow prevents the pressure change in the thorax, so no air is sucked in. Nitrogen via mask doesn’t have that effect, so air can go in and out while relieving the body of C02.
“hit the floor thus releasing more cyanide. And they die. Do you think nitrogen or carbon dioxide can do that?”
Neither CO2 nor nitrogen are poisons, but replacing Oxygen with nitrogen or CO2 causes the body to suffocate. The lack of Oxygen causes death, which is another definition. The warning by CO2 of Oxygen dropping doesn’t exist, so it doesn’t cause you to react so that you can get more Oxygen. People have died from nitrogen when playing with laughing gas without the appearance of suffering.
I am not commenting on the death penalty or any mechanism of execution, but many drugs can quickly kill, and others can relax a person. Morphine, used for pain relief, doesn’t sound like a bad ending. It depresses respiration.
We do not know what caused the gruesome event. I wouldn’t trust witnesses who might have an agenda or who have never seen death before.
“Did the nitrogen cause the thrashing? I doubt it.”
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I doubt it too. Never said it did. I also know people can slip away without realizing they are low on oxygen. One of my stepfathers passed out when his oxygen canula stopped working. He had emphysema. He told me he was no longer afraid of dying because he could have died then and it was so easy. He died a few months later. In the Idaho mine fire some miners exposed to carbon monoxide without a lot of smoke sat down to take a break because they felt tired and never got up again. Some died eating lunch and drifted away peacefully. Others had a fight. The son of a teacher I knew died with convulsions lying in the piss ditch on the 3,700 level. 91 died in a single day. But as Estovir pointed out there are many changes when one is deprived of oxygen and panic adds to the mix. It is fundamentally stupid to kill someone with a nontoxic mostly inert gas that only takes away oxygen when there are so many toxic substances that work faster and painlessly. Even most vets won’t kill a dog this way I have heard.
Young, I am not concerned with the method of execution. I don’t think Nitrogen is gruesome. I don’t like poisons as they have to be made and stored while having the ability to kill unintentionally, like the dropped flask you mentioned. Any time you try to execute someone, you worry about panic.
I like simple injectables commonly used. I don’t understand why valium and potassium chloride aren’t used. How about morphine, which sedates and leads to respiratory suppression and respiratory arrest?
It is so easy to kill a human being by accident in a hospital; why is it so difficult to do the same when executing a convicted murderer in prison?
“It is so easy to kill a human being by accident in a hospital; why is it so difficult to do the same when executing a convicted murderer in prison?”
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Exactly. It’s easy to kill, vets do it all the time, so why the gruesome experiments with executions? I suspect that if either you or I were charged with finding a humane alternative execution method neither of us would think of sticking someone in a mask and pumping it full of nitrogen. Who does that?
Young, I don’t look at Nitrogen as any more gruesome than morphine. It was an experiment demanded by the consumer as his preferred way to die, and we (or I) don’t know how that experiment turned out. If you wish to reduce panic, pain, and fear, you can give Valium, Morphine, etc., in advance. I am confident that a delivery system for Nitrogen can be created, and we should recognize that unused Nitrogen can mix with the air around us without risk to anyone else. Ask the risk management people. There are plenty of ways to end someone’s life.
the witness is a liar. Nitrogen narcosis is painless and you simply pass out.
Well that went about as well as could be expected given that nitrogen is not a poisonous gas and works on the same principle as smothering him with a pillow,
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13008191/Kenneth-Eugene-Smith-nitrogen-executed-first.html
Even Socrates’ hemlock would have been a better choice and that technique is more than 2,000 years old.
You don’t need very much basic science to know how this was likely to go. But unless you study on your own you don’t get much basic science in high school these days.
This by me.
@Anon,
Not quite.
Yes 78% of the air we breathe is nitrogen.
But unlike smothering w a pillow, you’re not conscious of the replacement of O2 w more nitrogen.
In short, your body doesn’t know that you’re not getting enough O2 so you pass out and die with no pain or any sensory perception of what is happening.
It is literally the most painless way to die, short of either being hit in a nuclear blast or rapid compression from a hull breach where in both cases you’re gone before your nerves knew what hit you. (You get the idea.)
They could easily have him completely wired up and monitor his eeg, ekg, O2 saturation, in real time as he is gassed.
His gaming of the system didn’t really backfire… he was going to die and this way… he’ll suffer less than his victim.
-G
Apparently you didn’t read the article I linked. He had a bad time of it. It wasn’t pretty and it took too long.
Young, he was struggling in terms of a panic.
Wasn’t due to the nitrogen.
“But unlike smothering w a pillow, you’re not conscious of the replacement of O2 w more nitrogen.”
Don’t you think the driving force to create is CO2?
Yup, you are 100% correct
I don’t think the Court did well on this Nitrogen thing, nor the Texas border[what a mess that could have been avoided], nor the Chauvin appeal [appears cowardly], nor on any of the election fraud cases [also appears cowardly], but that is only my impression.
For Justice he should be destroyed exactly the same way he murdered his victim.
The outlaw “Sundown” said that killing Bill Thaxton a Texas Ranger would be fun.
“Sundown” never fights till the sun is going down & his back is facing the west.
Die Atomic
“ Everything about the case has been legally irregular…” ~ Turley
That’s putting it mildly. Jury finds the man guilty and sentenced him to life, but a judge overturned that sentence and upped the ante to death. The state tried to execute the man, but bumbled that until the warrant expired.
I am tepidly pro-life on this.
In most instances I can not justify the Death penalty.
But my wife is a public defender and very rarely a crime is so heinous and the perpetrator so dangerous and irredeemable that I can support the Death penalty.
But it is vastly overused. We had outlaws in the late 19th early 20th century that killed many people in the commission of their crimes, were caught convicted and given sentences of 15yrs hard labor, Released in 7-10 and went on to lead productive lives.
Even today the overwhelming majority of violent criminals age out of violent crime.
A massively overwhelming majority of violent crimes are committed by people under 35, More than half by people under 20.
The most cold hearted unrepentant vile teenage murderer is an entirely different person 10-15 years later.
There are some exceptions – Most sociopaths do not commit crimes, fewer commit violent crimes, but once a sociopath crosses a criminality line, they will never go back, they will never age out.
Nor does the evidence suggest that the death penalty is a deterant. Oddly it suggests the opposite.
States with the death penalty often attract those who commit particularly heinous crimes.
I would suggest reading John Grishoms “An Innocent Man” – I believe the only non-fiction book Grishom has written.
Regardless, he vowed to never do it again.
What Grishom found regarding the death penalty was eye opening.
Death Row’s tend to be a hell hole of prison. Substantial portions of those on death row are mentally retarded or seriously mentally ill or both.
Further, the process of execution – the legal process, and the actual execution process is incredibly destructive to those involved.
Even the most pro death penalty prosecutors and judges, tend to bend over backwards to delay the process. While they do not oppose the death penalty, they do not wish to be the prosecutor or judge that is last in the process of carrying it out.
It is easier to mull over some defense motion for a year or two or 4 before signing off, only to face the next challenge – which you know will come.
When running for office you can bemoan the complexity of the process – but in practice those involved – regardless of what they say are secretly complicit in delay.
Executions occur in prisons and are incredibly disruptive to the prison and the staff.
Typically outsiders – not the normal prison guards are brought in to perform the execution.
Because regardless of what people say they believe – few of us are unaffected by participating in the execution of another human no matter how heinous.
While death penalty defense attorneys are deeply effected – often the mental impact on prosecutors and judges is greater.
Defense attorneys at least have the moral foundation to know they are fighting a losing battle against the execution.
Prosecutors and judges – regardless of where they start or what they say ultimately make the decision to kill someone.
Efforts to streamline the process are unlikely to work – because the prosecutors and judges do not want it to go faster – no matter what they publicly might say. They may not even be aware of their own internal conflicts that result in delay.
Delays also exist because as a rule all those involved – the judge, the attorneys at all levels are typically required to be “death penalty qualified”
While that is not that hard to do, it is easy for a prosecutor or defense attorney who does not want to deal with death penalty cases to avoid getting qualified – so there is a shortage of qualified attorneys, and those tend to burn out fast. Because death penalty cases are especially hard on attorneys.
In the end I accept that in rare instances some people act so heinously that execution is an appropriate punishment – though that is the exception not the rule and I would not execute the overwhelming majority of murders.
But I also except that the process of executing someone is so unbelievably hard on those in our criminal justice system that for their sake – not the perpetrators, executions should be rare to non-existent.
Put simply state executions cause serious harm to people way beyond the criminal who may well be deserving.
John Say, Well said.
Scripture revels that families are dysfunctional and there are adulterous murderers.
Take King David for example, who went lustfully after a married woman named Bathsheba and sent the husband, Uriah to his death on a battlefield.
John, I see nothing that suggests to me this person should be spared the death penalty. I will sleep just as well tonight if he is put to death as I do all nights.
“And was not allowed to build the temple and died a horrible death as punishment.”
It appears the boozer was trying to speak but was canceled. That is good because his history, like always, is faulty. King David is not reported to have “died a horrible death as punishment.” This Know-Nothing must be thinking about King Saul.
The Bible indeed says God would not allow David to build the temple, but God also told David that his son would be permitted to make it.
The Good Lord Himself punished King David by taking the life of Bathsheba’s new son. Then King David did the sackcloth & ashes bit and The Lord forgave him. Then King David went down into Bathsheba again and she gave him a new son–the future King Solomon!
I’m unmoved by your words.
@John Say,
Sorry, but there are some crimes so heinous that the death penalty is warranted.
Or its the crime where the murderer is indifferent about taking a life and doesn’t care what happens.
This way of execution will be the new model.
Non-toxic and lethal w no pain.
Heck toss in an anti-anxiety drug to take the edge off and its probably the best way to die.
Now I’m not saying everyone who commits murder should be executed. But that there are cases where you have someone who is that vicious and there is no hope of redemption.
-G
If one gives the death penalty, one may receive the death penalty.
If one gives the death penalty without regard for the alleviation of pain, one may receive the death penalty without regard for the alleviation of pain.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
“These proceedings are closed.”
– General Douglas MacArthur
Ever notice how those that cruelly murdered someone object to capital punishment as being cruel? Hmmm….
I believe the guillotine to be pretty quick and reliable.
Draw and Quarter.
There’s your deterrent.
Guy Fawkes of the Gunpowder Plot actually committed suicide by jumping from the gallows, snapping his own neck, to avoid drawing and quartering in 1605 London.
An abuse of the system to be sure on his part, but that’s what psychopaths do (see: Ted Bundy). Dude is still getting the nitrogen, and he deserves it. For all we know she was one of several, and regardless there is no question he treated women and others he personally saw as weaker terribly. No one will miss you, dude. Good riddance. Whatever happens in the afterlife, it’s safe to say you will not enjoy it. Sally forth, psychopath. It’s a miracle you weren’t killed before now in prison, and the lack of remorse – no one will miss you.