Alabama AG calls first nitrogen gas execution 'textbook,' but witnesses say inmate thrashed in final moments
Category: News & Politics
Via: perrie-halpern • 11 months ago • 90 commentsBy: Abigail Brooks and Erik Ortiz
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
ATMORE, Ala. — Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall on Friday vowed to continue using nitrogen gas in executions and offered to assist other states interested in the novel method, while fending off concerns that an inmate executed the night before did not become unconscious as quickly as expected and thrashed on the gurney, according to witnesses.
"What occurred last night was textbook," Marshall told reporters after the execution of Kenneth Eugene Smith on Thursday evening by nitrogen hypoxia, in which he was forced to breathe only nitrogen through a mask and was denied oxygen.
The execution,the first in the U.S. using nitrogen gas, lasted roughly 30 minutes from the time it started to Smith's time of death. Marshall said Friday that nitrogen hypoxia "is no longer an untested method — it is a proven one."
But the physical reaction of Smith, who was 58 and on death row for over three decades for a 1988 murder-for-hire slaying, was already being highly scrutinized after a 2022 attempt to execute him by lethal injection failed when prison staff could not locate a suitable vein.
Media witnesses to Thursday's execution said Smith was conscious for several minutes into the execution and then appeared to shake and writhe on the gurney for two minutes. They said that was followed by several minutes of deep breaths until his breathing slowed and it was no longer perceptible.
The state had said in court filings that "the experts agree that nitrogen hypoxia is painless because it causes unconsciousness in seconds," and death within minutes.
Marshall could not say exactly when the nitrogen began to flow into the mask, making it difficult to discern the timing.
But one media witness said it appeared to take longer than the state had suggested for Smith to become unconscious and die.
"It's interesting to see the attorney general say that everything went consistent with plans that they laid out," Lee Hedgepeth, an Alabama reporter, said on MSNBC.
"We saw him begin violently shaking, thrashing against the straps that held him down," Hedgepeth said of Smith. "This was the fifth execution that I've witnessed in Alabama, and I've never seen such a violent execution or a violent reaction to the means of execution."
He added that Smith had dry-heaved into the mask.
In court documents arguing for various courts to block the execution, Smith's lawyers said he feared he would vomit into the mask and choke — only adding to his claims of cruel and unusual punishment. The U.S. Supreme Court rejected Smith's request to block his execution late Thursday in a 6-3 decision, with the court's three liberal justices dissenting. Justice Sonia Sotomayor agreed that Smith's fears of "superadded" pain and prolonged death were warranted and he had been selected as a "guinea pig."
The execution drew criticism from civil rights and religious groups both nationally and around the globe, with United Nations human rights experts saying it "will likely violate the prohibition on torture."
Smith's spiritual adviser, the Rev. Jeff Hood, who was permitted in the chamber to give him his last rites before the mask was strapped on and who has participated in multiple executions in the past year, said he did not expect to see Smith "heaving up and down on the gurney."
"I mean, it really was like watching someone put a plastic bag over someone's head and just to see what happens, and holding it as tight as they can, as long as they can, to watch the person resist and shake," Hood said.
"They repeatedly said that he would not be able to resist the nitrogen, would be unconscious within seconds," Hood said, adding that that did not happen. "He'll be unconscious in a matter of seconds. And then he looks like a fish out of water."
Joel Zivot, a physician and an associate professor of anesthesiology at Emory University in Atlanta,had voiced concerns about the risks of nitrogen hypoxia and the possibility of slow asphyxiation that could "result in a torturous death."
He said the idea that administering the method once does not mean it has been proven because it remains untested in a credible scientific and impartial setting.
"We have observations now, and we know it would take a longer time than they said it would. We know he was writhing around, which I know it doesn't indicate anything good," Zivot said. "If they think this was him enjoying his hypoxia, then saying what happened last night was 'textbook' are just words without meaning."
Alabama has 165 inmates on death row. Marshall said that 43 others have also chosen nitrogen hypoxia over lethal injection as their preferred method of execution.
"We'll definitely have more nitrogen hypoxia executions in Alabama," he added Friday.
With lethal injections becoming increasingly difficult to carry out because of a shortage in the necessary drugs — as manufacturers decline to make them available for the purpose of executions — observers say nitrogen gas may eventually be a go-to alternative for many states. It is abundant, found in the Earth's atmosphere and soil.
Two states, Mississippi and Oklahoma, have approved nitrogen hypoxia in executions in addition to other methods, although neither has a protocol in place like Alabama. Alabama made nitrogen hypoxia a legal method in 2018 but moved to install its protocol after a series of problematic executions using lethal injection that led to a temporary pause in the practice in 2022.
Oklahoma had a moratorium on executions for six years until 2021 following a series of bungled executions of its own related to lethal injection.
Officials in Oklahoma last year said they would be watching what happens in Alabama, but wouldn't immediately commit to making nitrogen hypoxia an option.
"I have a continuously watchful eye on the progress Alabama is making with this new method," Oklahoma Department of Corrections Director Steven Harpe said in a statement Friday. "We are interested in the option of nitrogen hypoxia because it releases the state from the burden of the three-drug protocol. If nitrogen hypoxia is proven to be safe, effective and easy to administer, the availability of nitrogen reduces the strain of locating and obtaining the sedatives and paralytics for our current protocol."
Nebraska state Sen. Loren Lippincott said he hopes a bill he introduced this month to make nitrogen hypoxia another option for death row inmates besides lethal injection can advance. The state has been unable to carry out an execution since 2018 because it can't obtain the necessary lethal injection drugs, he said.
"Given the outcome of the Alabama case, we are confident that this will be a highly debated bill in our state," Lippincott said in an email. "If given this option, we are certain that the Nebraska Department of Corrections will use this method to humanely give justice to victims' families and our community."
In December, in a phone interview from prison with NBC News, Smith predicted the use of nitrogen hypoxia would only create more "victims" if the state of Alabama proceeded. He also had a message for his fellow death row inmates, some of whom said the mood in the prison Friday was "deflated and anxious, for sure."
"As goes Kenny," he said, "so goes the rest of my brothers."
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He stabbed a woman to death for $1000 and left her children to grieve the loss all of the days of their lives.
Why is the focus on the murderer might have possibly "suffered" for a few minutes?
sorry, I don't get the amount of concern for the humane disposal of murderous scum. fuck that noise. grab some fentanyl out of the evidence locker, put enough of it to get a stadium off into a dart gun syringe, strap him to a gurney, shoot the dart, pronounce him dead, have the coroner drain him, put him into a cardboard box, drop it into a hole in the ground, cover it with dirt and call it a day ...
Agreed.
Morning Devangy...the most well armed country on this earth and when it comes to a firing squad..everyone goes gun shy??.
You mob literally have the answer in your hands. It's efficient, cheap and very effective yet they still stuff around and get all squeamish using lethal injections to bump off a murderer..
Someone has lost the plot..
Guillotine and firing squads are too bloody for the public
Hanging worked except for the poor soul soiling themselves and the involuntary jerking afterwords
They convinced themselves a long time ago that a drug overdose was more "humane" the electrocution
and its spectacular failures.
it's typical here. think, there must be a harder way to do it, is our motto. somebody is looking for job security, and if they asked for volunteers the line would stretch for blocks.
Morning..no public viewing allowed other than for victims family if they wish...hell people hardly even bat an eye with mass shootings these days..let alone one person...
Nope taken out to the sticks put in front of the firing squad and disposed off.. remains either sent back to the murderers family if not buried in an obscure place in an unmarked grave...
Our northern neighbours (Malaysia & Indonesia) have no qualms about using traditional methods of execution, hanging and firing squad. Much simpler and very efficient. Our own citizens who committed drug offences, despite reading the numerous warnings and signs in the departure lounges at the airports, have paid the ultimate penalty!
still too expensive. good lord woman, the solution is right in front of you. 2 large zip ties for the wrists and ankles, a boat ride to the reef, open a couple veins and over the side...
Exactly.
Nah that's still to much effort and don't want to wreck the reef..
Just turf them in the nearest billabong and you are done..no mess, no fuss..and all good for the environment...🐊🐊
Yep they don't stuff around.. Barlow and Chambers if I remember correctly..and the Bali 9..
Saved us mega $$...
I had to look up "billabong". I had only heard of the clothing company.
OMG, you've never listened to the Australian National Anthem, Waltzing Matilda?
It sounds familiar, but I recognize the tune more than the words.
I remember it. Never really knew what it meant.
Arvo..what you would call a pond I guess...a body of water enclosed by land.. sometimes they have a small steam running into it..
Billabongs are very common up north crocs love them... people get taken because they think they are a great place to swim...but..🐊🐊
I'll never understand why they can put a dog to sleep, but they can't put a murderer to sleep.
let the victim's families determine who does it and how, or at least apply extreme exaggeration to the penalty to make a better deterrent. make the execution of sentence so hideous as to give other potential murderers pause for a second thought about committing such a crime. use the healthy ones as involuntary organ donors. I also don't think the taxpayers should be stuck for the cost of the casket or excavating/covering their graves. sell their corpses to zoos or gator farms for all I care. film and copyright their executions and market them for pay per view, giving the families the profits. there's plenty of people in america with more money than sense as potential customers.
I'd also streamline the appeals process for the convicted that had indisputable evidence of guilt so that taxpayers weren't stuck with the tab of public defenders and warehousing this class of potential organ donors, which is the only legitimate reason left for keeping them alive.
Not until we fully understand if the cells carry memory and can affect the recipient's personality. There are studies ongoing because of personality changes linked to donor's personality and preferences.
you're starting to get too close to my ingenius idea of deathrowdick.com. an online service where a specific moneyed demographic of those that typically feel shortchanged in life, or having some self esteem issues, are able to purchase genital extensions or replacements in a variety of sizes and colors, to be implanted by a surgeon of their choice.
My personal experience, with this type of man, tells me their problem is between their ears not between their legs.
There’s no credible evidence that the death penalty is a more effective deterrent against murder than incarceration. Generally, when people commit murder, they’re all out of fucks to give. They aren’t thinking about the punishment. In fact, they probably feel quite justified in their actions.
Basically, it might make the victim’s loved ones or society feel better because revenge was exacted. That’s about it.
There is NO deterrent against murder.
The murderer is animalistic. Their thought process revolves around satisfying an internal need that would be impossible to understand unless a person is wired the same way.
The murder victim is just that - the victim. Analyzing how or why a victim deserved or asked to be murdered is asinine and yet, that seems to be the normal thought process of the people, who seem to somehow identify with the mindset of the murderer. Really? Most people are hardwired not to kill other people. The murderer does not have this standard wiring and will never acquire it. Amputees have a better chance of regrowing a severed leg.
Keeping people in cages like zoo animals is cruel and inhumane. Prison should be about rehabilitation for the people who can be rehabilitated via supervision, counseling and vocational education.
For the people, whose mental damage is beyond rehabilitation then it should be either lifelong incarceration in a mental hospital or the death penalty.
I have read that scientists are working on brain implants for the criminally insane. Is it ethical or moral to experiment on murderers in the hope of keeping them out of cages or being executed by the various methods proposed in this discussion? Doubtful.
I'm going to bookmark the follow article that seemed to have some interesting information that I will try to wade through when I more awake.
I will share in case someone here is interested in a study of the criminal mind.
I think for the lifelong criminal/drug addict/insane person what you say may be true. But a number of people commit murder who otherwise have no record - often because they just lost their temper, but there can be other reasons.
Maybe they’re fed up with taking care of an elderly or sick family member. Maybe they have some other personal or financial situation that seems hopeless and they see no other way out. Maybe someone has broken their heart or wronged them in some other way, and they’re bent on revenge. Maybe they have done something less egregious than murder, but they decide they are willing to murder to cover it up (this person is actually trying to avoid jail).
But once the decision is made, do people pause because of the death penalty? It doesn’t seem like they do.
A lot of maybes portraying the murderer as the victim.
So what if the murderer is fed up with other people? This is something we all have to deal with or cut the toxic people out of our lives without killing them. The majority of people do this every day of their life. They quit jobs, they divorce, they distance themselves over time from toxic friends and family.
Who hasn't been "wronged" by another person? Who hasn't had their heart broken? The majority of people have the mental ability to understand that is not a reason to commit murder. The people, who view other people as objects to be used, really do feel they are the victim. This is usually the defense used - the murderer was the victim. The defense lawyer tries to seat a jury that is selected based on their empathy for victims. The people, who have been the enablers of the murderer, are called to defend the murderer's actions. The "experts" are called in to portray the murderer as a victim of whatever they can be considered a victim of.
During the trial, the true victim is either forgotten or portrayed as the aggressor who deserved to be butchered, strangled, shot, drowned, etc. Some juries actually buy into this bullshit and exonerate the murderer.
I will repeat what I wrote earlier. The death penalty does not deter murderers one iota. Murderers have little, if anything, in common with people who do not commit murder. The problem is that some people identify more with the murderer than the victim. They project their emotions about their life experiences onto the murderer and feel the murderer actually got justice for them by murdering someone who had "wronged" them or "broken their heart" or whatever grudges they harbor against others.
Not at all! Where do you get that nonsense?? I’m just exploring the reasons why people commit murder. I didn’t say I personally thought they were good reasons.
This whole line of conversation is about the deterrent power of death over incarceration, and whether or not a murderer might take either into account. Portraying the murderer as a victim doesn’t enter into it.
I have observed or taken part (as counsel) in multiple murder trials. I have never seen the kind of victim-blaming you are describing unless there is a self-defense case to be made. Even arguing the heat of the moment, such as finding your lover in bed with someone else, just reduces the degree of homicide.
I have said as much a few times, now. This has actually been studied. So have the “reasons” people commit murder.
There was a study done by the University of Chicago that concluded that every execution 8-18 murders are deterred.
We are going to need a link to that likely bogus study which must be from a bogus source then because every study I ever saw found that capital punishment has no real effect on the murder rate...
Explain why the murder rate is higher in death penalty states...
It would be interesting to see the research data.
For myself, I honestly believe that most people have evolved to the level that they don't want to murder other people and would not want to live with the guilt.
It is entirely probable that I am projecting my morality on others which is why I am always interested in studies and profiles of criminals and how their brain-wiring/thought processes differ from people who can live in an ordered society.
They couldn't even locate the veins on him the first time around. I guess they could force him to wear a mask and pump the sleeping gas into that way- but if he resists you the same thing all over again that has some so upset for a murderer.
handcuff perp to the back bumper of a old truck that needs a valve job. start truck. close garage door. wait 20 minutes. ezpz.
That’s not a green solution.
How about an old green truck?
based upon such limited use, green solution applications will create more carbon produced than those needed to be offset.
analyze. adapt. attack.
more green?
crush 3 quaaludes mixed with a syringe full of everclear and spike the perp, put down some plastic and pour him into the backseat of any car. then run a hose from from the exhaust pipe in thru a back window and seal it with cardboard and duct tape. start the car, set the heater temp for high and on recirculate, shut the car door, check back in an hour.
As a paramedic, saw what a 12 gauge shotgun can do when fired in the mouth and under the chin. Not pretty, but very fast and very effective. Shotgun shells are also quite inexpensive.
way too messy. how about a one way ticket to the mid atlantic on deathrow airlines. steel sleeve inside a C-130, cinder block ankle bracelet for the perp, fly out 300 miles off the coast, drop the ramp and pull into a steep climb.
With your gifted imagination on the ways to execute people, you should be writing murder mysteries.
meh, I just have a big problem storing humans with no hope of redemption at $60K to $80K per year.
I totally agree.
Way too expensive.
Just turn the death row guy loose in the gen-pop yard and pay some lifer a carton of smokes to shank him.
Jesus, how hard is that? A nurse’s aid, with a few months of training finds veins all day long. What is so complicated?
Just use a longer needle and go into the heart.
I'll never understand how some can have such compassion and sympathy for such a scummy and slimy killer [Deleted]
My question comes from neither. I don’t spend any time worrying about executed convicts and what they might or might not endure. But the law worries about it via the 8th Amendment. And since it is a concern for some, I ask why we don’t just do for humans what we are happy to do for animals? Seems to me like an obvious, inexpensive, and easy solution.
I know this will be an unpopular opinion, but this is one of the reasons I can't support the death penalty.
Do I know he did a terrible thing? Yes.
Do I think he doesn't deserve to suffer? No.
Do I think the state or its actors should be in the position to cause a painful death? No.
Do I think death row inmates should be guinea pigs for testing new execution methods to determine whether they're effective, or "cruel and unusual"? No.
Fire away.
+1 not because I agree 100% but you make excellent points.
Thank you.
I agree with most everything you said, but I'm a bit iffy on extending any type of human rights to people that have acted like animals. I'm also not crazy about the idea of human experimentation. I think bureaucrats make this issue way too complicated. I'm more interested in efficiency and economics, which may be issues people opposed to the death penalty have. death penalty executions don't happen that often, but for some reason people tasked with this decision want to make it more cost effective and don't want to get their spiritual hands dirty. in reality there are many more less expensive options with little to no suffering available and probably no shortage of people willing to carry them out.
Totally agree.
This is probably the only thing I am not 100% on... Science tells us a lot. We can be reasonably sure of what is going to be painful and what isn't. Just my two cents. In the end, dead is dead but I do agree that we shouldn't be in the business of causing, intentional, suffering.
At least it means they can do one meaningful and useful in their lives. They should be used for medical research also.
Like Mengele's "patients"?
I knew they was coming.
No not like mengeles victims. They were innocent people that did not deserve the treatment they received. Death row prisoners are more than worthy of the danders of experimentations.
That is in opposition to the Constitution. We do not administer cruel and unusual punishments, and forced medical experimentation can be.
People OD on drugs every day all across the country...seems to me the method of execution is staring states right in the face.
exactly right. mickey the perp's last meal with fentanyl and go call the coroner.
Cheap and plentiful in the medical industry. After I had surgery, they put me on 100 Mcg/hr, worked great. 1,500 Mcg in an IV over the course of a minute? I would think that would do it....go out high as a kite.
"here's your milkshake and a side of catsup for your burger and fries..."
slurp, chomp, ba-bump...
An oldie but a goodie. Guaranteed to be painless or your money back
too messy. how about being dropped into salt water pool with a faulty 220v light fixture instead...
Maybe Wednesday has some extra piranha's she used on the people bullying her brother.
Croc bait is better..quick, environmental friendly, no mess and doesn't cost a cent..🐊
Well you're no fun.. LOL
I could easily come up with some more ways that would be a lot of fun for any spectators, but I don't need the few friends I do have here sending screen shots to the FBI. it must be that faces of death or other videos I watched decades ago...
Scary how so many of us peaceful folk come up with so many cool ways to off folk.
I know..it's good isn't it..
I have been watching Lucifer on Netflix.. brilliant show and some ripper ideas..
Tom Ellis is sexy as hell.
Yes he is a charming little devil..
This is a typical example of the personality of a murderer. No guilt. No remorse.
This little girl reminds me of a cousin that became a drug addict and plotted her parents' murder for years. Thankfully, she never went through carrying it out. Her mother recently died of old age (80+). And her father is making arrangements that someone oversees my cousin for the rest of her life. They tried to hook me into being her overseer, but I declined as gracefully as I could under the circumstances.
An interesting situation exists in the US when it comes to the death penalty and Native Americans. Since we are a sovereign nation within a nation there are many areas of the US law that do not apply. If a native commits a murder on Indian land (reservation) they cannot be executed by the US unless the Tribe consents to it. Of course, if the murder is committed on US land the federal law applies and the death penalty can be enforced.
There was a case in 2020 where a double murder was committed by two Navajo men on the Navajo rez and the tribes insisted that there be no death penalty, the victim's family also intervened and did not want an execution as did the prosecution. The DoJ intervened and demanded the death penalty which resulted in a huge fight and the Feds executed him when most all lawyers and the law said was illegal. The second person was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility. He was the only Indian on death row in the US.
Native Americans rarely if ever used the death penalty. The most severe punishment was banishment for life, which for an Indian was the same as the death penalty. Today that would not apply and life in prison is what we want.
Wait a minute, you're saying the crime took place in 2020 and this person has been executed. Please give me the link to the case.
It's not like Smith gave Elizabeth Sennett a peaceful death as a "fireplace set, a walking cane, and a piece of galvanized pipe" were used to beat her.