Published 26 January 2024 at 11.01
Foreign. Kenneth Smith, 58, became during the night of Friday the first to be executed in the United States using nitrogen gas. Critics have claimed that Smith was used as a “guinea pig” for the new execution method.
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Kenneth Smith was sentenced to death for the 1988 murder of Elizabeth Sennett in Alabama. The murder was carried out for payment on behalf of the victim's husband.
During the night of Friday Swedish time, Kenneth Smith was executed with nitrogen gas. The proceedings took 22 minutes.
– Tonight, Alabama sees humanity take a step back, read the last words of the death row inmate.
Smith – who survived a previous controversial execution by lethal injection in 2022 – became the first in the United States to be executed by nitrogen gas.
In the US Supreme Court, there were three judges who wanted to stop the nitrogen gas execution, but they were overruled by the other members. Justice Sonia Sotomayor accused Alabama of “using Smith as a guinea pig for a method of execution never before used”.