"Alabama executed convicted murderer Kenneth Smith on Thursday night, marking the state's inaugural use of nitrogen gas for capital punishment. The method, touted by authorities as a less painful and more humane alternative to lethal injection, has sparked significant controversy and criticism."

 

The governor's office in Alabama confirmed the execution, highlighting the state's determination to apply nitrogen gas as a form of capital punishment. Several human rights organizations have protested this decision, and the UN has also voiced concerns. Even Kenneth Smith, the condemned man, appealed against his execution; however, the US Supreme Court eventually dismissed all of his arguments.

Smith had been sentenced to death for the gruesome murder of Elizabeth Sennett in 1989, a crime committed for a mere one thousand dollars. The victim's husband, a missionary burdened by debt, had enlisted the help of Smith and Forrest Parker to orchestrate the murder aimed at collecting his wife's life insurance. The plot took a tragic turn when the pastor's husband took his own life upon investigators' arrival for his arrest.

Forrest Parker faced execution in 2010, and now, more than a decade later, Kenneth Smith met a similar fate with the implementation of the controversial nitrogen gas method. Smith had narrowly escaped death two years ago when an attempted lethal injection failed due to the inability to locate a suitable vein before midnight, leading to the expiration of the death sentence.

Despite ongoing debates on the ethics and humaneness of execution methods, Kenneth Smith's execution stands as a pivotal moment in Alabama's legal history, as the state forges ahead with nitrogen gas as an alternative means of carrying out capital punishment.