Alabama Carries Out World's First Nitrogen Gas Execution

Alabama executed murderer Kenneth Eugene Smith Thursday night with nitrogen gas, the nation's first execution by a new method since 1982. It was, in fact, the first such execution in the world, notes the Washington Post. The execution took place soon after the US Supreme Court ruled that it could proceed. Smith is a 58-year-old convicted killer whose 2022 lethal injection was called off at the last minute because authorities couldn't connect an IV line, per the AP. Alabama then switched to the idea of using nitrogen gas, insisting it is humane despite critics' assertions to the contrary.

Smith's attorneys had waged an unsuccessful legal battle, arguing that Alabama was trying to make him the test subject for an experimental method. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who along with two other liberal justices dissented, wrote: "Having failed to kill Smith on its first attempt, Alabama has selected him as its 'guinea pig' to test a method of execution never attempted before. The world is watching." The majority justices did not issue any statements. Smith was pronounced dead at 8:25pm after breathing pure nitrogen gas through a face mask to cause oxygen deprivation. It was the first new method of execution in the US since lethal injection became the norm in the early 1980s.

• The crime: Smith is one of two men convicted in the 1988 murder-for-hire slaying of Elizabeth Sennett. Prosecutors said he and the other man were each paid $1,000 to kill Sennett on behalf of her pastor husband, who was deeply in debt and wanted to collect on insurance.
• Last meal: In the hours ahead of the scheduled execution, Smith met with family members and his spiritual adviser, according to a prison spokesperson. He ate a final meal of T-bone steak, hash browns, toast, and eggs slathered in A1 steak sauce. (It was a horror screenwriter who first floated the idea of using the gas.)

(More death penalty stories.)