the essential Kenneth Eugene Smith, convicted of a murder committed in 1988, was executed this Thursday, January 25 by nitrogen inhalation in Alabama (United States). A look back at three decades of a long judicial series.
A “torture” for the UN, a “particularly cruel” death for the European Union. This Thursday, January 25, the American Kenneth Eugene Smith was executed by nitrogen inhalation in the state of Alabama, more precisely at the Atmore penitentiary.
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“Torture”, “cruel”, “degrading”: the execution of a prisoner sentenced to death by nitrogen inhalation in Alabama is controversial
A world first in terms of the modus operandi which marks the end of a long judicial series, while all appeals and requests for a stay concerning the 58-year-old man had been rejected, the latest of which was this Thursday by the Supreme Court. For her part, the governor of Alabama refused to grant a pardon to the condemned man.
Convicted of 1988 murder
Kenneth Eugene Smith was convicted of the 1988 murder of Elizabeth Dorlene Sennett, 45, ordered by her husband Charles Sennett, a heavily indebted and unfaithful pastor, to make it appear as a burglary gone wrong. Despite the husband’s suicide a few days later, the police traced the two murderers, one of whom, John Forrest Parker, had been executed in 2010, as recalled CBS.
Sentenced to the death penalty in 1996
During a first trial, Kenneth Eugene Smith had already been sentenced to death before the latter was overturned on appeal. At his second trial in 1996, 11 of the 12 jurors favored an irreducible life sentence. But as for his accomplice, the judge, ignoring the opinion of the jurors, sentenced him to the death penalty, a possibility existing at the time in some states but now abolished.
A first failed attempt by lethal injection
On November 17, 2022, Kenneth Eugene Smith had already been the subject of a previous lethal injection attempt. The process was canceled at the last moment: the infusions to administer the lethal solution could not be placed within the legally allotted time even though the condemned man had remained tied up for several hours.
