Alabama man in slammer to be 1st guy executed using nitrogen sans oxygen

Alabama might become the first in the nation to put a scumbag to death using pure nitrogen to breathe until his body starves for oxygen and he breathes no more. 

While this method of execution is authorized in three states, none have used it as yet and for death-row inmate Kenneth Eugene Smith, he might be the first to. go. all. the. way. 

The office of Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall asked the state Supreme Court in a court filing on Friday to set an execution date for 58-year-old Smith. The filing revealed Alabama intends to put him to death by nitrogen hypoxia.

Smith was one of two men who were convicted in a murder-for-hire killing of a preacher's wife in 1988.

"It is a travesty that Kenneth Smith has been able to avoid his death sentence for nearly 35 years after being convicted of the heinous murder-for-hire slaying of an innocent woman, Elizabeth Sennett," Marshall said in a statement.

Nitrogen hypoxia results when a person breathes only nitrogen and is deprived of oxygen, which then kills him. While nitrogen is basically harmless and is abundant in the air we normally breathe, at 78%, it is combined with oxygen which is what our bodies need to keep us alive. When only nitrogen is being processed by an individual, hypoxia results and in this case, Smith will get what he gave: death.

Alabama authorized nitrogen hypoxia in 2018 during a shortage of drugs used to carry out lethal injections, but the state has not used the method to carry out a death sentence. Oklahoma and Mississippi also authorized nitrogen hypoxia as an execution method but have not used it. Perhaps they should consider it in the future.

Proponents of the new, cheap and kind of cool execution method have said that it would be painless, but opponents have argued that it is a form of human experimentation. The new revelation that Alabama is preparing to use nitrogen hypoxia is expected to spark new legal battles over its constitutionality.

The Equal Justice Initiative, a somewhat bleeding heart legal advocacy group that opposes the death penalty because they have likely never had someone close to them be murdered, said Alabama has a history of "failed and flawed executions and execution attempts" and "experimenting with a never before used method is a terrible idea."

"No state in the country has executed a person using nitrogen hypoxia and Alabama is in no position to experiment with a completely unproven and unused method for executing someone," Equal Justice Initiative senior attorney Angie Setzer said.

It isn't much of an experiment since it's known that it will work, but people who oppose the death penalty will always find an excuse to allow such scum to live, unlike what they did to other individuals.

Alabama tried to execute Smith by lethal injection last year but failed to carry it out because of issues with inserting an IV into his veins. This was the second time in two months and the third since 2018 that the state was unsuccessful in putting an inmate to death. Republican Gov. Kay Ivey announced the day after Smith's failed execution that executions would be paused to allow an internal review of lethal injection procedures.

Lethal injections in Alabama resumed last month. Unfortunately, Hammurabi's code, the most famous example of "lex talionis" or law of retribution, is not permitted.

The state has been working to develop the nitrogen hypoxia execution method for several years but has not revealed many details about its plans. Corrections Commissioner John Hamm told reporters last month that a protocol was nearly complete.

The attorney general's court filing did not disclose the details of how the execution would be carried out.

Elizabeth Sennett was found dead in the home she shared with her husband in Colbert County on March 18, 1988. Prosecutors said Smith was one of two men who were each paid $1,000 to kill Sennett on behalf of her pastor husband, who was in huge debt and wanted to collect insurance money.

The victim’s husband, Charles Sennett, killed himself when the investigation began looking at him as a possible suspect, according to court documents. The other man convicted in the killing was executed in 2010.

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