Kenneth Smith’s Execution: Should We Rethink the Death Penalty?
On January 25, 2024, 58-year-old Kenneth Eugene Smith became the first death row inmate to be executed in the United States that year, 35 years after his conviction for participating in the murder-for-hire of 45-year-old Elizabeth Sennett. In one of the last interviews he did with Guardian journalist Ed Pilkington, Smith expressed fear and uncertainty about his upcoming execution, and condemned the government for not providing him an opportunity to heal and redeem himself with the rest of his life.
This execution marked Alabama’s second attempt to carry out Smith’s death sentence. The first, scheduled for November 2022 using lethal injection, was halted when executioners failed to locate suitable intravenous lines for administering the lethal drugs, which left Smith with severe post-traumatic stress. Despite this being the third consecutive failed execution in the state, Alabama did not abolish the death penalty. Instead, the state amended its execution protocol to grant executioners more time to complete the process, a change ratified by the state’s Supreme Court.
For Smith’s second death warrant, Alabama opted for an untested method, nitrogen hypoxia. This execution method was previously only used by veterinarians for euthanasia on animals, and was outlawed in a 2020 veterinary guideline due to inducing distress among certain mammals. Despite the method being unverified and untested, along with several human rights agencies expressing concern and disapproval, U.S. District Judge R. Austin Huffaker dismissed a preliminary injunction aimed at halting Smith’s execution, and a final appeal to the Supreme Court was also denied in a 6–3 decision, with three liberal justices dissenting.
After a final visit with his family on Friday, Smith was escorted to the execution chamber at the William C. Holman Correctional Facility. A mask was placed over his face, and nitrogen gas began to flow, eventually causing his suffocation due to hypoxia. The execution took 22 minutes, and was praised as “humane and effective” by state attorney general Steve Marshall. Mike Sennett, the son of the victim, said “evil deeds have been paid tonight” after the execution, adding that “nothing happened here today is going to bring Mom back.” Rev. Jeff Hood, Smith’s spiritual advisor, said “horror is an understatement” after witnessing the entire process, as he described Smith as “struggling for his life”. Justin Mezzola, a researcher for Amnesty International, called Smith’s execution “shameful” and advocated for the abolition of the death penalty altogether due to “systemic flaws in the system.”
In the United States, the death penalty is a legal penalty at the federal level (currently under a moratorium) and in 27 states. In New York State, capital punishment has been abolished, and no executions have taken place since 1963. Although the Supreme Court temporarily outlawed capital punishment in 1972, citing potential violations of the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition of “cruel and unusual punishments”, it was reinstated in 1976 with a new Supreme Court ruling that overturned the previous decision. Lethal injection, the most common execution method, typically involves a combination of an anesthetic barbiturate, a paralytic muscle relaxant to inhibit breathing, and potassium chloride to stop the heart. However, it faces challenges as many drug manufacturers refuse to allow their products to be used for executions. Other execution methods include firing squads, electrocution, and gas chambers, which have all been accused by legal scholars as violations of the Eighth Amendment.
Almost every state that has administered the death penalty in the past decade is under a right-wing, Republican administration; meanwhile, Republicans surveyed also express stronger support for it than Democrats. According to a 2021 Pew Research Center poll, 60 percent of respondents favor the death penalty. However, a majority also express concerns about its administration, including the potential for executing innocent people, the disproportionate racial distribution of executions between Black and White inmates for similar crimes, and its ineffectiveness in deterring serious crimes.
There have been several notable examples that have casted doubt on the justification behind the death penalty, not only due to the method’s cruelty itself but also the potential innocence or disability of the prisoner. In 2014, Arizona executed Joseph Wood for a double murder, and the lethal injection execution resulted in him gasping for two hours, “like a fish gulping for air,” which resulted in the state calling a formal review for the process. In 2021, Missouri executed Ernest Johnson for killing three people, despite a clemency from Pope Francis, citing his intellectual disability as the reason. In 2022, in a rare move, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals halted the execution of Melissa Lucio, who was convicted of killing her infant daughter despite only admitting her responsibility under a duressed interrogation and without an attorney present, and exculpatory evidence was possibly withheld by the prosecutor at the time. The plethora of flaws in the criminal justice system exemplified by these cases have never been adequately addressed by states that continue to practice the death penalty, making the form of punishment a prolonged perpetuation and exacerbation of intersectional inequality in America.
Smith’s execution occurred at a pivotal moment in judicial history, as advocates have been increasingly calling into question the 1976 Supreme Court ruling’s initial jurisprudence, especially given the systemic issues that are deeply embedded within the legal system of the country. Elizabeth Bruenig, a staff writer for The Atlantic and an opponent of the death penalty, believes that the abolition of this form of punishment needs to be discussed as a civil rights issue, given the punishment’s disproportionate impact on marginalized groups, its repeated failures in execution administrations and establishing guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, as well as its irreversible nature, which permanently eliminates any possibility of rehabilitation. After witnessing the first failed execution of Smith in 2022, she wrote that the continuous legality of it, under the name of the American people, “dissolves our rights little by little.”
