ATMORE, Ala. – Following a federal court ruling, Alabama may become the first state to execute a prisoner by nitrogen hypoxia, which suffocates by replacing oxygen with nitrogen. Kenneth Eugene Smith, 58, of Florence, who was convicted of capital murder in 1989 and again during a retrial in 1996, requested the method before an attempt to execute him by lethal injection failed in November 2022. After the failure of the injection, Smith’s request was granted. He then filed suit against the State of Alabama, claiming that nitrogen hypoxia would violate his constitutional rights and advocating the use of a firing squad under protocols currently used by the State of Utah. The Federal District Court for the Middle District of Alabama denied his latest request, and Smith faces execution on Jan. 25, 2024.
Following the federal court’s decision Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall on Jan. 10, 2024, issued a statement saying, “With today’s order, Alabama is an important step closer to holding Kenneth Smith accountable for the heinous murder-for-hire slaying of an innocent woman, Elizabeth Sennett. Smith has avoided his lawful death sentence for over 35 years, but the court’s rejection today of Smith’s speculative claims removes an obstacle to finally seeing justice done.”
Marshall’s statement further read: “In March 1988, Charles Sennett, the pastor of the Westside Church of Christ in Sheffield, Alabama, sought to hire a hitman. Reverend Sennett, who had incurred substantial debts and was having an extramarital affair, had taken out a large insurance policy on his wife. His scheme was to have his wife murdered, which would enable him—in one cowardly fell swoop—to escape both his financial obligations and his marital vows. Through an intermediary, Reverend Sennett hired Kenny Smith and Smith’s friend, John Parker, for $1,000 each to conduct the murder. Elizabeth was ambushed, violently punched, beaten, and bludgeoned, and stabbed over and over again with the six-inch survival knife that Smith and Parker had brought with them. In addition to countless lacerations and abrasions that she sustained to her body, Elizabeth suffered a total of ten stab wounds—eight to her chest and two to her neck—which proved fatal.
“Kenneth Smith was tried for his crimes in 1989 and again in 1996. In both trials, Smith was convicted of capital murder by a jury of his peers and sentenced to death for his crimes. He was previously scheduled to be executed on November 17, 2022.”
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