State of Alabama Wants to Use Untested Execution Method for Death Row Inmate

CV NEWS FEED // The state of Alabama is poised to use an untested execution method for death row inmates. 

Last week, the Alabama attorney general’s office asked the Supreme Court to set a date for the execution of Keneth Eugene Smith, 58, in connection with a 1988 murder conviction. The state plans to use an untested process involving forced nitrogen intake.

Smith’s initial lethal injection in November 2022 failed “after staff were unable to find a suitable vein to connect the second of two intravenous lines to Smith’s body,” according to AP News. 

Smith argues that he deserves to die by nitrogen hypoxia, a method which, according to reports, “proponents have theorized…would be painless.”

If Smith were executed according to this method, nitrogen hypoxia would be induced by forcing him to breathe nitrogen only, causing him to become deprived of oxygen, lose consciousness, and die. 

The recently invented Sarco Pod, intended for use in assisted suicides, uses the same technology. It is a coffin-shaped machine that kills in seconds, according to inventor Dr. Philip Nitschke, commonly known as “Dr. Death” or “the Elon Musk of assisted suicide.” 

Reports say the process produces “disorientated” and “euphoric” feelings in its victims before they quickly lose consciousness. 

The machine asks three questions before it activates a button for the individual to press in order to release the fumes: “‘Who are you?’, ‘Where are you?’, and ‘Do you know what happens if you press the button?’”

Dr. Nitschke told the DailyMail UK that “if they press the button, they will die very quickly.” 

Smith’s lawyers argued that “To subject Mr. Smith to a second execution by lethal injection would be to subject him to a torturous experience of unnecessary physical and psychological pain, as has been established through Alabama’s last three execution attempts.”

Smith was convicted for the murder of a pastor’s wife, Elizabeth Sennett, after her husband, Charles Sennett, paid him $1,000 to kill her. Mr. Sennett reportedly hired Smith to do the killing so he could collect insurance money to pay his debts. 

Alabama, along with Oklahoma and Mississippi, authorized the use of nitrogen hypoxia in 2018 but has not attempted to replace lethal injections with it until now.