Alabama's attorney general vows to use nitrogen gas executions AGAIN as he doubles down on controversial textbook deaths, leaving 43 death row inmates in Alabama on the brink of death, just like Kenneth Eugene Smith
Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall has vowed to continue using the controversial method of nitrogen hypoxia, despite harrowing reports from witnesses to the execution of Kenneth Eugene Smith.
The police officer even offered to help other states obtain the previously untested method, dismissing claims that the killer writhed and shook in pain as he was slowly suffocated during a 22-minute ordeal on Thursday evening .
“What happened last night was a textbook example,” Marshall said Friday, contradicting accusations made by many, including Smith's spiritual adviser, who said it was “torture” and the “worst thing he had ever seen.”
“When they turned on the nitrogen, he started convulsing, he hit the gurney over and over again, he shook the whole gurney,” said spiritual advisor Jeff Hood, who was in the room immediately after the execution.
Kenneth Eugene Smith was sentenced to death in 1996 after admitting to killing a preacher's wife for hire in 1988. On Thursday night, he became the first person in American history to be executed with nitrogen gas.
Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall (pictured) pledged to continue using nitrogen hypoxia for the state's executions, noting that 43 death row inmates in Alabama have chosen to be executed via nitrogen hypoxia rather than lethal injection
In light of the controversy, nitrogen hypoxia has opened a new avenue for U.S. prisons to continue the practice of executions, with some states going years without them amid a nationwide shortage of lethal injection drugs.
Marshall cited this in his remarks Friday, touting how nitrogen gas executions are “no longer an untested method – it is a proven method.”
Officials insisted months ahead of the execution that it would be humane and painless for Smith, whose previous execution in 2022 was called off after prison staff tried to insert an IV line for several agonizing hours.
After the botched execution in 2022, Smith attempted to carry out his subsequent execution via nitrogen hypoxia — in an apparent gamble that officials would not sustain with the untested method.
However, Marshall said that of the 165 inmates on Alabama's death row, 43 inmates have chosen to be executed via nitrogen hypoxia rather than lethal injection when their time comes.
“There will certainly be more nitrogen hypoxia executions in Alabama,” he concluded.
In documents before the execution, the state argued that “experts agree that nitrogen hypoxia is painless because it causes unconsciousness within seconds.”
Marshall reportedly admitted that this was not exactly how it unfolded Thursday evening because it took longer than expected, but said it was difficult to determine the timing because it was difficult to know when the nitrogen started flowing.
Execution witness Lee Hedgepeth – who described the harrowing episode for DailyMail.com – said what he saw in the room directly contradicted Marshall's comments the day after.
“It's interesting to see the attorney general saying that everything went according to the plans they had in place,” Hedgepeth said. MSNBC.
'We saw him start to shake violently and hit the straps that held him down.
“This was the fifth execution I have witnessed in Alabama, and I have never seen such a violent execution or such a violent response to the means of execution.”
Hedgepeth, one of five journalists who saw Smith put to death, sat next to Smith's wife Deanna in the viewing gallery, a few feet away from where her husband was strapped to a gurney.
He told the BBC: 'The execution will start at approximately 7.53am. The nitrogen begins to flow into the gas mask and Kenny begins to violently shake the straps holding him down.
'That violent shaking lasts about four to five minutes. I've witnessed five executions in Alabama. Four of them lethal injection. One with nitrogen and this was the most violent execution I have ever seen.
“Next to me was Deanna Smith, Kenny's wife. When Kenny started shaking those straps violently, she started sobbing.
“There were other media witnesses in the room, people who had seen other executions, and I think there was shock in the room at how violent the execution was.”
Smith's wife Deanna screamed for her murdering husband as he resisted his restraints, before collapsing at a press conference after the controversial execution (pictured)
Elizabeth Sennett, 45, was murdered in 1989 by Smith and another man after her husband paid them $1,000 each to kill her so he could collect her insurance.
Smith was 22 years old (seen in his original 1989 mugshot) when he was first arrested for the murder of Elizabeth Sennett in 1988. His conviction was overturned before he was sentenced to death for the same murder at a separate trial in 1996
Before the execution began, Smith's pastor John Ewell told DailyMail.com that the killer was “really struggling” with the reality of his impending death, and officials said he barely touched his last meal of a T-bone steak, potato wedges and eggs. Waffle House.
As he “struggled” to accept his fate, the Alabama Department of Corrections said Smith's last day began with him refusing a breakfast of eggs, biscuits, grape jelly, applesauce and orange juice.
He was then given a lunch tray but again refused it, although he did drink Mountain Dew, Pepsi and coffee.
Smith was ordered to drink only clear liquids from 4 p.m. after barely touching his last meal, which came from Waffle House slathered in A1 steak sauce.
His last call was to his wife, Deanna Smith, who screamed desperately from the witness stand – having previously witnessed her husband's botched execution two years earlier.
The method of execution divided opinion for weeks leading up to the end date, with some feeling that Smith's 1988 crime was worth his place on death row.
At age 22, Smith was one of two men convicted of murdering hitman Elizabeth Sennett, 45, the wife of preacher Charles Sennet Sr. who hired the men to kill his wife in an insurance plot.
His initial 1989 conviction was overturned on appeal, but he was retried and convicted again in 1996, where he was sentenced to death.
Prosecutors said he and John Forrest Parker were each paid $1,000 for the hit, with Sennett's husband hoping to collect on her insurance because he was deeply in debt.
John Forrest Parker, the other man convicted of the murder, was executed in 2010
She was found dead in her Colbert County home on March 18, 1988 with eight stab wounds to the chest and one on each side of her neck.
After learning that he was suspected of involvement in the plot, Charles Sennett Sr. suicide. He is now buried next to his wife.
The controversial execution was praised by Alabama Governor Kay Ivey following news of Smith's death, as he felt justice had been served for Sennett's murder.
Ivey said in a statement: “After more than thirty years and attempt after attempt to game the system, Mr. Smith has taken accountability for his terrible crimes.
“I pray that Elizabeth Sennett's family can find closure after all these years of dealing with that great loss.”