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The priest describes the shocking execution of the 45-year-old with nitrogen gas: It was a horror movie, everyone was horrified when he was...

2024-01-27 13:08:52Kosova&Bota SHKRUAR NGA REDAKSIA VOX

The priest describes the shocking execution of the 45-year-old with nitrogen

On Thursday, January 25, death row inmate Kenneth Eugene Smith was executed by nitrogen gas, a controversial method used for the first time, which has sparked strong reactions and debates, both at home and abroad.

The scenes that unfolded at Atmore prison shocked eyewitnesses, who saw Smith's body "squirm and thrash" for several minutes on the stretcher before eventually dying of hypoxia.

The execution of Smith, who was irrevocably sentenced in 1996 to life in prison after his second trial, for killing a woman on her husband's orders, came after all the 58-year-old's appeals and demands for bail were refused, most recently in the High Court on Wednesday.

In its written arguments to the Supreme Court, the state of Alabama went so far as to present hypoxia by nitrogen inhalation as "perhaps the most humane method of execution ever invented."

However, the scenes described by the 58-year-old priest, Reverend Jeff Hood, completely contradict this claim.

Speaking to the New York Post, the priest spoke of scenes of horror that deeply affected all the correctional officers involved in the execution.

He said he could see the shock and surprise on their faces during the 22-minute process.

“They were told it would be quick, easy and anonymous... The whole process was just horrible. It's a scene I'll never forget," Reverend Hood said.

As he pointed out, if someone walked into the room and didn't know it was a real execution, they would think they were on the set of a movie, of a horrible experiment gone wrong.

Hood explained to the newspaper that, from where he sat in the execution chamber, he could see the faces of corrections officers, including that of Cynthia Stewart Riley, an official with the Alabama Department of Corrections.

"In these conditions it is difficult to know exactly what is happening, but I know that I saw the terror on the faces of the people in front of me. When the execution began and his body began to contort, the change in the expression of the officials was evident. He looked like a fish out of water, struggling again and again. Riley was behind the stretcher to his right. She was so upset that she kept tapping her foot on the floor nervously, like when you can't stand still."

As the minutes passed, the tension in the room grew, until finally it was confirmed that the death row inmate had passed away.

It is recalled that an earlier attempt to execute Smith by lethal injection on November 17, 2022, was aborted in the extreme after a catheter could not be inserted in time to inject the lethal solution into his veins, even though he stayed tied up for hours.

Kenneth Smith was found guilty in 1988 of the murder of Elizabeth Dorlin Sennett, 45, for which he was paid by the victim's husband, pastor Charles Sennett, who was deeply in debt and had a history of infidelity.

He wanted to create the impression that it was a robbery gone wrong.

Although the husband then killed himself, the police were able to catch the perpetrators.

Kenneth Smith's associate John Forrest Parker, who was also sentenced to death, was executed in 2010.

Kenneth Smith, was also initially sentenced to death, but the trial was overturned on appeal.

At his second trial in 1996, 11 of 12 jurors voted for a life sentence.

But, as in his accomplice's trial, the judge overruled the jury and imposed the death penalty, an option that existed in some states at the time but has now been abolished in all.

 


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