The last words of Kenneth Eugene Smith, the first to be executed with nitrogen gas in the US: “Tonight Alabama makes humanity take a step back”

Alabama executed Kenneth Eugene Smith, a man sentenced to death for the murder of a pastor’s wife in March 1988, on Thursday followingnoon.. The inmate had already been sentenced to death in November 2022 by means of a lethal injection, but it might not be carried out as the vein might not be found. Now they have executed him with a novel method, considered torture by several experts: nitrogen asphyxiation.

The process lasted 32 minutes. They placed a tight-fitting mask on Smith’s face so that he might inhale nitrogen until he ran out of oxygen and lost his life. But it was not an instantaneous or rapid loss of consciousness, as state authorities had predicted. Smith, 58, was conscious for several minutes as the gas invaded his lungs, according to eyewitnesses.

He then “shivered and writhed” for at least two minutes before beginning to gasp for air. “This is the fifth execution I have witnessed in Alabama and I have never seen such a violent reaction to an execution“said one of the journalists present at the William C. Holman prison in Atmore, Alabama. These were Smith’s last words before he died: “Tonight Alabama makes humanity take a step back. Thanks for your support. I love you all“. Afterwards, he said goodbye to his wife with “I love you.”

Different sectors and organizations have denounced this method

After this execution, criticism of this method of ending the lives of prisoners has not been long in coming. A state prosecutor told the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals that it is “of the most painless and humane method of execution known to manLikewise, several medical experts point out that it is a “humiliating and painful death, preceded by convulsions and even vomiting in the mask itself.” The United Nations also wanted to speak out, who have denounced this practice.