Supreme Court Declines to Stop Nation’s First Execution by Nitrogen in Alabama
Vatican-tied peace group wants Europe to boycott Alabama over nitrogen execution.
The U.S. Supreme Court and a federal appeals court decided not to intervene and stop Alabama from conducting the nation’s first-ever execution by nitrogen gas.
Alabama plans to use nitrogen gas to kill Kenneth Smith, who was convicted of a 1988 murder, after the state botched its previous attempt to execute him by lethal injection in November 2022. Barring any additional legal interventions, prison officials plan to bring him to the execution chamber in Atmore, Ala., on Thursday evening, place a mask on his face and pump nitrogen into it, depriving him of oxygen until he dies.
The Supreme Court declined to intervene in Mr. Smith’s appeal of a state court case, in which his lawyers had argued that the second execution attempt would violate his Eighth Amendment right to be free from cruel and unusual punishments. The court’s order did not include an explanation or note any dissents.
Hours later, in response to a separate challenge by Mr. Smith’s lawyers, a federal appeals court also declined to halt the execution over the dissent of one of the three judges who had heard the case. Mr. Smith’s lawyers said they would also appeal that case to the Supreme Court, potentially giving the justices another chance to intervene, though they have been reluctant to do so in last-minute death penalty appeals in recent years.
Three states — Alabama, Mississippi, and Oklahoma — have approved nitrogen gas as a form of execution. Death is from “nitrogen hypoxia“, that is, being in an atmosphere deficient in the life-essential gas oxygen.
The protocol in Alabama calls for an inmate to be is strapped to a gurney and fitted with a mask and a breathing tube. The mask is meant to administer 100% pure nitrogen, depriving the person of oxygen until they die.
About 78% of the air that humans breathe is made up of nitrogen gas, which may lead people to believe that nitrogen is not harmful, according to the U.S. Chemical Safety Board.
However, when an environment contains too much nitrogen and the concentration of oxygen becomes too low, the body’s organs, which need oxygen to function, begin shutting down and a person dies.
State officials have argued death by nitrogen gas is a humane, painless form of execution and that the person would lose consciousness before they die.
The man slated for execution, Kenneth Eugene Smith, is one of two men convicted in the murder-for-hire slaying of a preacher´s wife in 1988.
Prosecutors said he and the other man were each paid $1,000 to kill Elizabeth Sennett on behalf of her husband, who was deeply in debt and wanted to collect on insurance.
Sennett, 45, was found dead March 18, 1988, in her home in Colbert County with eight stab wounds in the chest and one on each side of her neck, according to the coroner.
Her husband, Charles Sennett Sr., killed himself when the investigation focused on him as a suspect, according to court documents.
Smith´s initial 1989 conviction was overturned on appeal, but he was retried and convicted again in 1996.
The jury recommended a life sentence by a vote of 11-1, but a judge overrode that and sentenced him to death. Alabama no longer lets judges override jury decisions in death penalty cases.
John Forrest Parker, the other man convicted in the slaying, was executed in 2010.
A peace group with close ties to the Vatican said it would appeal to European businesses and tourists to boycott Alabama if it went ahead with the execution.
The warning by the Sant’ Egidio Community involves Kenneth Smith, who was convicted of a 1988 murder and who survived a botched execution attempt by lethal injection in 2022.
…At a news conference where he spoke about an eventual boycott, Mario Marazziti, Sant’ Egidio’s expert on the death penalty, mentioned that Germany automaker Mercedes Benz has a plant in Alabama and that many Europeans go to the southern state for its golf courses.
“This is a proposal that we will make if the execution of Kenneth Smith goes ahead,” he said, adding that he believed European trade or investment in Alabama amounted to hundreds of millions of dollars a year.
Those complaining it is inhumane or untested clearly are unaware of the industrial accidents that occur with nitrogen gas, which are due (in part) to the fact inhalation of oxygen-deficient environments pass out quickly with no warning indications.
Because the vaporized nitrogen offers no warning signs – such as a colored haze or an acrid odor – those exposed can quickly suffer asphyxiation without ever recognizing they are in trouble. If nitrogen levels are especially high and oxygen deficiency is extreme, death can result.
According to OSHA, between 2012 and 2020, 14 American workers died from asphyxiation related to nitrogen in 12 different workplace accidents. Avoiding these accidents is a clear challenge to the industry, and one that must be taken seriously – especially considering that these incidents are mostly preventable.
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Comments
It sounds good to me, though shooting the guy is supposed to work just as well.
The panic of suffocation comes from a buildup of CO2, which in this case does not happen.
Or you could take the guy up in an airplane without oxygen. Or just use any old surgical anesthetic and kill him any old way afterwards.
Fentanyl could be a choice. Brandon has ensured that there is plenty to go around.
I have read that this is supposed to be one of the ‘best’ ways to die. Like you said, no panic feeling, you just nod off to sleep peacefully. Of course, how anyone could ‘know’ that for sure is a bit of a question mark.
But it seems like it is too good for anyone sentenced to die… they should know sheer terror in their last moments, IMO. Deterrence is the point of it, after all.
It is outrageous that that POS is alive today.
Exactly. His murderous act occurred 35 years ago. So much for swift justice I guess. I wholeheartedly approve of Texas’ express lane method to executions. NEXT!
He refused a sedative on the first execution attempt. It went sideways fast. Guy wouldn’t hold still so they had difficulty injecting him. Some dude supposedly took the syringe from a tech and started stabbing the guy in neck trying to do it. By all accounts it was a fiasco.
Just use a rope. A sufficient drop height and a well positioned noose will snap the neck easily enough. Unfortunately our judiciary will have to revisit the more traditional methods if they are to be used. Perhaps in light of the logic of more recent decisions like Bruen this won’t be impossible. If hanging was fine and dandy at the founding and far beyond into the 20th century then surely it passes muster.
I am ok giving Nitrogen to those EU, Netherlands, and German officials who are persecuting farmers there.
If this works out well, it should deprive the anti-death penalty nuts from their normal routine of trying to stop a state from buying the lethal injection drugs by way of lawsuits against the manufacturers.
Yeah… it’s real hard to shut off a state’s entire supply of welding gas cylinders.
I suspect the key word here is “cruel.”
Some writeups make it sound like the condemned merely drifts off to sleep. Really? There is no gasping and choking as the body (which isn’t being fooled) struggles mightily to take in more “air?” I have a hard time believing that the body’s reaction to oxygen deprivation won’t be so different than its reaction to drowning, which is terrifying enough.
I seem to remember some Apollo astronauts died this way on the pad, making repairs in a spacecraft invisibly rendered “fireproof” by this method, but not posted in any fashion. Unfortunately, there are no tales of how peaceful their deaths were, because there were no witnesses handy.
There was an imprint of White’s hand on the sooty window of the door. With toxic fumes and all oxygen consumed with the velcro/plastics fire…. plus the burning of their suits… mostly peaceful after a minute for so.
So much concern for “cruel”. We are finding what constitutes “cruel and unusual” at the hands of Garland and Co.
I think we’re talking about two different incidents. That fire provided the impetus to maintain an oxygen-free atmosphere inside the vehicle on the pad, and that atmosphere was the direct cause of the next tragedy, a death from unwitting oxygen deprivation.
That was a pure Oxygen environment because Nitrogen is a problem when the pressure changes radically. Look up “the bends”. After the accident they put Nitrogen back in at slightly lower mix of 60/40 versus normal air which is closer to 80/20. They also took out all paper products and almost anything else that would ignite easily in a high oxygen environment.
Nitrogen and carbon monoxide both cause you to fall asleep and die without realizing you are dying since you are not making CO2 because you don’t have any O2 to make it with. Your body only recognizes high CO2 levels not low O2 levels.
It was in March 1981 while prepping the Space Shuttle Columbia for it’s first flight. the Orbiter was kept in a Nitrogen atmosphere to precude fires. 5 technicians died . A sixth technician, the last to enter the orbiter, saw the men laying on the deck , put on an air mask and attemptied to rescue the men . He reported that none of the men made a sound or showed any distress. They just quietly lay down and appeared sleeping.
Thanks for untangling my memory.
The struggle and gasping is a result of the buildup of carbon dioxide increasing in concentration. That shouldn’t happen here unless somebody is woefully incompetent or just wants the condemned to suffer.
Weirdly, our bodies don’t know of we need more oxygen. Our breathing is regulated by the need to expel carbon dioxide.
That is exactly what happens. Read all about hypoxia training with nitrogen.
https://hypoxico.com/pages/military-government#:~:text=By%20conducting%20active%20and%20passive,air%20pressure%20inside%20the%20cockpit.
Knew of a professor who very nearly killed himself with a nitrogen atmosphere. There was a lab inert atmosphere chamber what had a nitrogen atmosphere in it. He wanted to check something in it and figured he’d hold his breath and stick his head in.
He passed out pretty much immediately, and the only reason he didn’t asphyxiate was when he collapsed, it pulled his out of the chamber. (Was a desktop one, about the size of an oven.)
The issue is CO2 levels are what trigger is to hold our breath, not O2 levels, so I’m an inert atmosphere you reflexively breath.
Note: that’s a human thing. Burrowing mammals like rabbits can detect an O2 deficit atmosphere and will absolutely freak out in a pure N2 atmosphere. But not people.
His victim surely didn’t die peacefully. So why should anyone be concerned how this bastard dies? He should have died 34 years ago in my book by the cheapest means necessary. Just think how much $$$ was wasted by the taxpayers of Alabama.
A bullet or a rope would still be the easiest and most economical way of disposing of these vermin.
Further, it’s a sick joke that the only people in society who are almost guaranteed of a painless death are exactly those evil people who have visited so much pain and terror on innocents. Most normal people will probably suffer greatly in their death. That’s just how it is.
The idea that someone who is evil enough that he should be put to death yet “deserves” for that death to be painless is one of the craziest, most retarded notions any man has ever come up with. At the very least – the very least – criminals deserve to experience at least the same amount of pain and terror as they inflicted on their victims. At least. That is fairness and justice. And everyone knows it.
Our courts have made a complete mockery of the simple phrase “cruel and unusual punishment”. The punishment fits the crime, and for the worst criminals they have earned punishments far worse than a painless, easy death.
The problem stems from 250 years of “enlightened, refined sensibilities” depressing the bar on what the concept of “cruel” or “unusual” used to mean.
Yes. Cruel and unusual means an intentional torture intended to cause pain over and extended time before the death occurs.
No it doesn’t. Cruel and unusual doesn’t mean anything without specifying the crime. It is cruel and unusual punishment to lock someone away in prison for 20 years for jaywalking. It is reasonable and sensible to lock someone away in prison for 20 years for armed robbery.
There are crimes for which the perpetrator deserves to feel extreme pain over an extended time before he is allowed to die. People who torture others certainly deserve to be tortured. Reciprocity is ALWAYS fair, and punishment for a crime needs to go beyond reciprocity since the perpetrator had the choice but the victim did not.
He was able to live 35-years longer than his victim and 12-years longer than his co-defendant. The guy is the living (soon to be dead) embodiment of ‘living on borrowed time.’
If hanging didn’t violate the 8th Amendment according to the guys who wrote and ratified the 8th Amendment, I’m not sure why we’re even having this conversation. Tall Tree. Short Rope. Problem solved.
Just go back to hanging already.
Rope is green.
You could use a hemp rope, in order to satisfy the lefties
Only the best Bridgeport hemp?
Maybe nitrous oxide would be more humane?
What were his last words? He said, in between fits of laughter…”I’m dying over here!”
South Carolina State Bureau of Investigations, Richland County Sheriffs Office along with Lexington County and SLED routinely destroy evidence post-conviction by introducing papers, guns, etc to the furnace charge at CMC Steel. Seems dropping a convicted person in would be quick and painless.
As a former OSHA Instructor I have heard of people being overcome by simply leaning over to pick up something and having their face break the plane of an oxygen free layer of gas.
A person who survived described it as having someone turn out the lights and smack you in the face with a pillow. It was just ‘snap’ and lights out with no time to react. He said you would think you could just stand up but that’s not how it works. It’s not like teargas or choking. It’s not that you can’t breathe; You did breathe but you breathed in air with zero available oxygen and your body shut down instantly.
Since this will be the first time executing a condemned prisoner with nitrogen hypoxia I can’t say for sure how it will go but I think he will take a single breath and immediately lose consciousness.
Did that only once with NH³ and gained respect for the plane at the entry point!
Low O2 levels with no CO2 buildup (like a N2 environment or high altitude) make you stupid, literally. Higher brain functions quit functioning and you don’t realize what is going on until it is too late. (which I remember from my pilots training long ago why you can only stay in the 12k/14k altitude range for a limited time without supplemental O2) It’s very similar to some of the major Covid issues since O2 levels drop and you don’t realize it and can’t recognize the symptoms.
Why not just use carbon monoxide…people pass right out from it
At the very least criminals on death row should be serving “hard labor”, not sitting around in their hotel room cells entertaining themselves.
I support the death penalty for one simple reason.
The bleeding heart liberals and trash Democrat politicians have proved that ‘life without parole’ means NO such thing.
And I don’t care if scumbag murderers deaths are ‘cruel and unusual’.
IMO they should die in the exact manner they killed the victims they were convicted for.
I support it for more than that.
If you murder in a premeditated fashion, you deserve to die but MAY be granted mercy if it was one person and you help investigators find the body or some crap like that…I’m willing to see the value in that for a family (although the family should be asked if they would trade that first).
If you murder multiple people, you should have been put down yesterday.
Unfortunately, a not insignificant number of criminals on death row are there not because they are scumbag murderers, but because the prosecutors and cops are scumbag liars to whom getting a conviction is more important than convicting the right person.
And when they are caught, the legal system does absolutely nothing to hold them accountable.
You’ve seen the difference in how J6 defendants have been treated vs rioters on the left who do far worse…but you trust the same legal system to have the power of life and death over us?
Yea…no thanks.
I used to be an advocate of the death penalty until Mike Nifong convinced me that prosecutors are a corrupt bunch
Mike Nifong lost.
His lies were exposed. His corruption was made plain.
He tried and failed. Because the justice system DOES actually seek justice when it is not controlled by leftist partisans.
Take him over to Texas for a Jasper Trail Ride.
only reason I am against the DP
is automatic appeal at taxpayer expense ….
which could be corrected
Those found guilty of a crime and sentenced to death should get one appeal to a higher court and that’s it. There shouldn’t be these endless series of appeals and court cases that drag the issue out for decades. One appeal to the court of their choice and that’s it.
If they want to use lethal injection, they should hire a veterinarian to do it. Vets are used to putting down all sizes of animals and calculating the right amounts of drugs to use. That’s not something that MD’s are good at.
Do we know what the grounds for the appeal were? Surely it wasn’t simply that a second attempt is inherently cruel and unusual. If it was, then I’m not surprised there was no explanation or dissent.
it was
Thank you, Mr. Smith, for demonstrating some positive value to the society which enabled your existence. May your guinea-piggery prove to not have been in vain, and lead the way for many further instances of efficient garbage disposal.
Hanging or guillotine are quicker and more efficient.
Obviously “cruel and unusual” punishment did not include hanging when the Constitution was written and ratified.
Having to see pets put down, I am pretty sure the same stuff would work for people. Alternatively, you can go with the pneumatic hammer that they use on us cows.
Is there a follow-up on how it went?
Or you could just beat him and stab him 8 times with a knife. I believe that his how he delivered his death sentence to his victim.