Green light for the first execution with nitrogen in the US: Kenneth Smith (58), sentenced to death, has eaten his last meal

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It takes a 30-hour process before the actual execution begins. On Thursday morning local time, death row inmate Kenneth Smith (58) was served his last meal in the American state of Alabama. According to US media reports, his last wish for a meal was steak, hashbrowns and eggs.

Smith is expected to suffocate from nitrogen gas on Thursday evening local time. He is believed to be the first inmate to die using this new execution method, which has never before been tested on a human in the United States. There is talk of an ‘execution experiment’, with Smith as the ‘guinea pig’.

Currently, the wires between lawyers and the courts are tense to stop the execution at the last minute. But several courts, including the United States Supreme Court, have already given the green light. Smith is expected to die for the 1988 contract killing of a woman.

Brutal déjà vu

The prison authorities published the protocol of what happened in the execution chamber. Smith is strapped to a stretcher. He has a mask placed on his head in which a stream of nitrogen is introduced into his head. This deprives him of oxygen, which would lead to death.

No one knows how long the dying process will take. A brutal déjà vu for the death row inmate. It’s the second time Alabama has tried to kill him. In November 2022, a lethal injection failed.

Unable to find a suitable vein, the executioners pierced the bone before the death sentence expired. After four hours and several failed attempts, the execution was called off and Smith was returned to his already vacated death row.

Death by asphyxiation from vomit?

Since then, Smith has complained of pain. According to one of his lawyers, his client is still suffering the consequences of this failed murder attempt – due to the stitches in the muscles and bones, but not in the blood canal.

Now, in what is believed to be Smith’s final hours, his lawyers argue that Alabama is not adequately prepared to carry out the execution. A mask could let in enough oxygen to prolong the process and keep Smith suffering. Another argument is that he could choke on his own vomit. To avoid vomiting, Smith is not allowed to eat after 10 a.m. on Thursday.

Apparently recently, on Wednesday, Smith had been “vomiting frequently into a prison trash can and feared his nausea would make the execution more difficult.” With these words, the New York Times quotes the Rev. Jeff Hood, Smith’s spiritual advisor, who will be in the room during the execution.

Last desperate call for judgment

“We feel like we’re entering a sick, twisted house of horrors,” Hood says. Smith is “very scared. He’s afraid this thing will completely torture him.”

The execution, scheduled for 6 p.m. local time (1 a.m. CET on Friday), could be postponed by several hours until late at night, US media report. That’s because Smith’s lawyers filed another emergency motion with the Supreme Court on Thursday morning. Smith is waiting for the justices’ response to this last-ditch effort to stop the execution to consider the latest arguments. Shortly before 7 p.m. local time, the second green light came from the US Supreme Court. The execution will not be stayed. Law enforcement authorities said the execution was progressing.

Smith’s wife, two sons, his lawyer and a friend were said to be in the execution chamber as witnesses for the condemned man. The deadline for this second execution of Smith is Friday morning at 6 a.m. local time (1 p.m. Swiss time).

Source: Blick