Alabama carries out nation’s first execution with nitrogen gas

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• Geoff Bennett:

  For the first time in this nation's history, nitrogen gas was used as a new method of capital punishment in the execution of an Alabama prisoner.

  Kenneth Eugene Smith was convicted of a murder-for-hire scheme in 1988, and he survived a botched execution attempt in 2022. For the second and final execution, the state opted for a never-before-used nitrogen gas method, despite concerns voiced by several human rights groups and the U.N. that it could amount to torture.

  We're joined now by NPR's Chiara Eisner, who's been reporting on this story.

  So, Chiara, Alabama tried to execute Smith first by lethal injection two years ago, but was unable to find a vein before the state's death warrant expired. Why did they turn to nitrogen suffocation?

• Chiara Eisner, NPR:

  So, in 2022, Kenneth Smith's execution was botched in that way.

  They were not able to ultimately execute him. But that was the third execution that year that was botched in a similar way. So the state struggled repeatedly with lethal injection. And after Kenneth Smith's failed execution, his lawyers argued that they should never try to use that method on him again.

  And they advocated for the second method of execution that's legal in Alabama. The secondary method is nitrogen gas. So that's the other approved method. And that was what was available as an alternative.

• Geoff Bennett:

  Smith's spiritual adviser condemned this method of execution while speaking to reporters last night.

  Rev. Jeff Hood, Spiritual Adviser to Kenneth Eugene Smith: I think that anybody that witnessed this knows that we didn't see someone go unconscious in two or three seconds. We didn't see somebody go unconscious in 30 seconds.

  What we saw was minutes of someone struggling for their life. I stood there and cried while I saw someone get suffocated to death.

• Geoff Bennett:

  So, Chiara, what exactly transpired during this execution?

• Chiara Eisner:

  So we heard from multiple media witnesses that Smith was awake, conscious at least for multiple minutes. We heard that he was writhing and gasping for multiple minutes. And the entire thing seemed to take around 22 minutes, which was significantly longer than what a lot of people expected.

• Geoff Bennett:

  And we should say that Smith was convicted of beating 45-year-old Elizabeth Sennett to death with a fireplace poker more than 30 years ago.

  The victim's son, Mike Sennett, also spoke to the media last night.

• Mike Sennett, Murder Victim’s Son:

  It's kind of a bittersweet day. We're not going to be jumping around, whooping and hollering, hooray and all that. That's not us. But we're glad this day is over.

  Kenneth Smith made some bad decisions 35 years ago. And his debt was paid tonight.

• Geoff Bennett:

  So looking ahead, as I understand it, Oklahoma and Mississippi have also approved the use of nitrogen gas for execution. Is there an expectation that other states will follow suit?

• Chiara Eisner:

  I think a lot of people were looking at what happened last night and seeing whether it is a viable alternative. Lethal injection has not been a viable alternative for many states.

  The drugs have been difficult to obtain after pharmaceutical companies widely and unanimously objected to their drugs being used to kill people. That's made it very difficult for states to obtain those drugs and to execute their prisoners with them. And people are looking for alternative methods.

  We have seen the death penalty decrease in popularity in the amount of executions that are going on, but it's not stopping, by any means. There are multiple executions scheduled for this year and multiple executions scheduled in Oklahoma, where, like you said, nitrogen gas is an approved method of execution.

• Geoff Bennett:

  NPR investigative reporter Chiara Eisner, thank you for being with us.

• Chiara Eisner:

  Thank you.