This evening, the state of Alabama will execute Kenny Smith in a new cruel and unusual manner, by suffocating him to death with nitrogen gas.
While this will be the first time any state has ever attempted to execute someone this way, it will be the second time that Alabama has attempted to execute Kenny Smith. They tried in 2022, strapped him to a gurney for over an hour poking him with needles and trying to find a vein — you see, actual medical professionals refuse to be involved with executions so it’s all just people who don’t know what they’re doing — and failed.
Smith was convicted of murder in 1996 for his part in the 1988 killing of Elizabeth Sennett. He and another man were paid $1000 each by her husband, Church of Christ Pastor Charles Sennett, to kill her and make it look like a robbery gone bad so that he could collect the money from the life insurance policy he had just taken out on her.
Some More Background On This Horrible, Horrible Story
The jury who convicted him voted 11-1 to not give him the death penalty, but the judge in the case overrode it and decided he should be put to death. This is no longer a thing judges are allowed to do in Alabama, so if he were convicted today he would not be facing execution. But he is. Tonight.
Instead of getting a last meal, Smith will not be allowed to have any food from 10 a.m. this morning until his execution, because the state doesn’t want him to vomit through the whole thing — as that might not be a nice visual for those watching. Smith has been throwing up continuously for several days, likely due to PTSD from the first time they tried to execute him. But one of the issues with killing someone in this way is that if they vomit in the middle of the execution, the mask cannot be removed from their face. So it would just … pile up in there and he would die from tracheal obstruction rather than the supposedly “humane” nitrogen gas.
In a November court declaration, assisted suicide expert Philip Nitschke — who actually created a euthanasia pod that uses nitrogen gas — explained some of the many ways this could all go terribly wrong. If the face mask doesn’t fit properly due to facial hair or changes in facial tone caused by going unconscious, or because Smith’s head jerked around while he was freaking out over not being able to breathe, the execution would take longer and be a whole lot more precarious.
He explained that the only way to ensure it would stay on correctly would be if someone were in there with him to hold it onto his face, a situation which obviously presents its own dangers.
“There is a significant possibility that Mr. Smith will be subject to incomplete cerebral hypoxia,” he wrote. “A resultant vegetative state with permanent brain damage cannot be excluded.”
Alabama does not allow reporters to conduct face-to-face interviews with death row inmates (which is horrifying), but Smith was able to respond to some questions from the BBC in writing.
"My body is simply breaking down, I keep losing weight," he wrote. "I'm nauseous all the time. Panic attacks hit regularly... This is just a small part of what I've been dealing with daily. Torture, basically."
In a statement to the BBC, Smith’s spiritual advisor, Rev Dr Jeff Hood, said, "I'm certain that Kenny's not afraid to die, he's made that very clear. But I think he's afraid that he will be even further tortured in the process." Which he likely will be.
Anti-death penalty advocates are still hoping for a last minute reprieve, as are Smith’s lawyers. They have asked Alabama Governor Kay Ivey to halt the execution due to the fact that efforts are currently underway to allow those given the death penalty through judicial override a chance at resentencing.
But Kay Ivey is a nut who is excited and looking forward to killing Smith.
Via The Intercept:
In an emailed statement to The Intercept on Monday, Ivey said that the current law on judicial override “honors the promises made to the family members of capital murder victims who have long waited for closure and justice.” She was optimistic about Alabama becoming the first state to carry out an execution with nitrogen. “This method has been thoroughly vetted,” she said. “I am confident we are ready to move forward.”
It has not, for the record, “been thoroughly vetted.” It has never been done before.
There’s something truly grotesque about the idea that we have to kill people just because other people were “promised” that they would be killed. I don’t think we should put anyone in the position of “looking forward” to another person being killed, no matter how terrible that person is. The idea that someone will get over the violent death of their mother by watching someone else be violently killed is false and it is cruel and certainly not something that is going to put people off of committing their own vengeance killings.
Sennett’s sons say they are looking forward to watching Smith’s execution and have told the media that it’s just come 35 years too late. It’s understandable to want vengeance against someone who helped kill your mother or anyone you love — even if it was a murder-for-hire situation that your father arranged and never paid for himself because he committed suicide not long after. But I don’t know that anyone should watch anyone else, no matter how much they hate someone or how valid that hate may be, suffocate to death.
Abraham Bonowitz, executive director of Death Penalty Action and co-Founder of L’Chaim! Jews Against the Death Penalty, told AL.com that this was part of the concern for those hoping to get a last minute reprieve for Smith.
“The worry is it’s going to be horrific in many ways – for [Smith] and everybody that gets to watch or has to watch – they’ll never forget that,” he said.
The problem with cruelty is never just what it does to the person suffering, but what it does to those who inflict it, those who witness it and those whose job it is to justify it. It doesn’t happen in a vacuum with only one person getting hurt.
Kenny Smith doesn’t have to die this way, and we don’t have to live this way. We don’t have to be a society that does this, and we shouldn’t be.
What is being done to Kenny Smith is a deliberate, sadistic act of vengeance. There is an undercurrent of satisfaction verging upon mordant glee that this brutally inhumane execution shall go forward.
Those adamant that this sentence be carried out demonstrate themselves to be perhaps more callous and cold blooded than the condemned.
𝘚𝘮𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘣𝘦 𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘰𝘸𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘺 𝘧𝘰𝘰𝘥 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 10 𝘢.𝘮. 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘶𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘭 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘦𝘹𝘦𝘤𝘶𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯, 𝘣𝘦𝘤𝘢𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘥𝘰𝘦𝘴𝘯’𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘩𝘪𝘮 𝘵𝘰 𝘷𝘰𝘮𝘪𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘩𝘰𝘭𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 — 𝘢𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘮𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘣𝘦 𝘢 𝘯𝘪𝘤𝘦 𝘷𝘪𝘴𝘶𝘢𝘭 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘴𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘵𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨.
That's what this is about. That's ALL this is about. OPTICS.
When pro-death assholes talk about "humane execution," what they really mean is some method that doesn't leave marks or visible disfigurement on the body, so that there won't be overwhelming visual evidence of brutal state-inflicted violence. If compassion for the condemned were our only concern, we would go back to the firing squad, the guillotine -- some method that was messy, brutal and instantaneous.
“𝘛ℎ𝘪𝑠 𝑚𝘦𝑡𝘩𝑜𝘥 𝘩𝑎𝘴 𝘣𝑒𝘦𝑛 𝑡𝘩𝑜𝘳𝑜𝘶𝑔𝘩𝑙𝘺 𝘷𝑒𝘵𝑡𝘦𝑑,” 𝑠𝘩𝑒 𝑠𝘢𝑖𝘥.
Yes, it has. On CHICKENS. No lie -- "controlled atmosphere stunning" is now considered the most humane method of poultry slaughter. It's not surprising that people like Ivey make the logical leap. I'd put in a birdbrain joke here, except none of this is remotely funny.
Impending death is bad enough. Impending torture until death is barbaric.