Gov. Kay Ivey announces that Kenneth Eugene Smith will be executed on January 26
On Wednesday, Alabama Governor Kay Ivey announced that she had set the timeframe for the execution of Kenneth Eugene Smith to occur beginning at midnight on Thursday, January 25, 2024, and expiring by 6:00 a.m. on Friday, January 26, 2024. Smith was one of two men who were each paid $1000 to kill Elizabeth Sennett on behalf of her husband, a preacher who was deeply in debt and wanted to collect on her life insurance. The execution will be the first person ever to be executed by nitrogen hypoxia. This is the method previously requested by the inmate as an alternative to lethal injection. Smith was scheduled to be executed by lethal injection back on September 22, but the state of Alabama called off the execution when Alabama Department of Corrections workers were not able to access Smith’s veins before the deadline passed. Proponents argue that nitrogen hypoxia is more humane than electrocution or lethal injection. The Alabama Supreme Court has approved allowing the state to begin executing people by nitrogen hypoxia. Nitrogen hypoxia is a method of suffocating a person by forcing them to breathe pure nitrogen, starving them of oxygen until they die. Nitrogen is an inert gas that makes up 78 percent of the air we breathe, passing in and out of the body harmlessly with every breath. A person can breathe pure nitrogen and not immediately realize there is a problem, but their cells and organs are slowly being deprived of the oxygen needed to function and will rapidly start to break down. Someone deprived of oxygen will pass out in minutes and die soon after when the heart stops beating. To connect with the author of this story or to comment, email brandonmreporter@gmail.com.
Alabama Supreme Court gives go ahead for execution by nitrogen hypoxia
Ralph Chapoco, Alabama Reflector Alabama is one step closer to becoming the first state to execute someone by nitrogen hypoxia. In a 6-2 decision handed down Wednesday, the Alabama Supreme Court allowed the state to proceed with the execution of Kenneth Eugene Smith, convicted of the 1988 murder of Elizabeth Sennett, under that method. Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall said in a statement Wednesday that Sennett’s family had “waited an unconscionable 35 years to see justice served.” “Though the wait has been far too long, I am grateful that our talented capital litigators have nearly gotten this case to the finish line,” the statement said. Chief Justice Tom Parker and Associate Justice Greg Cook dissented but gave no additional comment. Nitrogen hypoxia has never been used on a human being as a means of execution, and professional veterinary associations have discouraged its use in the euthanization of animals. Smith’s attorneys said in a statement Thursday that they were disappointed in the decision and would continue to work through the judicial process. Smith currently has an appeal pending with the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals claiming that attempting to execute him a second time violates his constitutional rights. “It is noteworthy that two justices dissented from this Order,” wrote Robert Grass, an attorney for Smith. “Like the eleven jurors who did not believe Mr. Smith should be executed, we remain hopeful that those who review this case will see that a second attempt to execute Mr. Smith – this time with an experimental, never-before-used method and with a protocol that has never been fully disclosed to him or his counsel – is unwarranted and unjust.” The order gives the Alabama Department of Corrections the authority to carry out Smith’s execution within the time frame set by Gov. Kay Ivey, which cannot happen less than 30 days from Wednesday, when the court published its decision. The Attorney General’s Office filed a motion with the Alabama Supreme Court back in August, requesting the court set a date for Smith’s execution. Smith’s attorneys requested the court reject the state’s motion in September, stating that nitrogen hypoxia has not been tested and only recently released the protocol for using that method of execution. A jury convicted Smith in 1996 in the plot to murder Sennett and voted to sentence him to life without the possibility of parole. The judge in the case overrode the jury recommendation and sentenced Smith to death. Alabama abolished judicial override in 2017, the last state in the country to do so. But the rule was not made retroactive. In May the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a lower court’s decision that allowed him to select his method of execution, in this case is death by nitrogen hypoxia. The high court turned down the appeal by the Alabama Department of Corrections, which argued that Smith was pursuing a delaying tactic. Smith was scheduled to be executed in November following the botched executions of Joe Nathan James Jr. and Alan Miller. However, his execution was called off after ADOC staff repeatedly failed to secure a vein to carry out the execution. Smith’s attorneys wrote in a brief last January that he “continues to experience physical and emotional pain, including lingering pain in his arm, near his collarbone, back spasms, difficulty sleeping, and likely post-traumatic stress disorder” from the failed execution. Death through nitrogen hypoxia became an available method for executing people on death row after the Legislature passed a bill sponsored by Sen. Trip Pittman, R-Montrose, allowing its use. He said that the method was more humane than lethal injection. Doctors and medical ethicists have criticized those claims. “Last year, after Alabama tortured multiple people in botched executions using lethal injection, we encouraged the state to pursue an independent evaluation of its execution protocols,” said Alison Mollman, interim legal director of the ACLU of Alabama. “Governor Ivey and the Alabama Department of Corrections failed to complete an independent review and instead insisted the problem was not having enough time to kill someone. Now, at the urging of Attorney General Steve Marshall, Alabama is rushing to put a man to death with an untested, unproven, and never-before-used method of execution. As Alabama races to experiment on incarcerated people with nitrogen gas, they put the lives of correctional staff, spiritual advisers, the media, and victims at risk by potentially exposing them to an odorless and lethal gas. Using this method has no benefit on public safety. Governor Ivey and Attorney General Marshall have a responsibility to stop the execution of Mr. Smith.” The Death Penalty Information Center, a nonprofit that students and collects data on the death penalty, criticized Alabama’s move toward nitrogen executions in a statement on Thursday. “No state has ever used nitrogen in an execution, and there are still too many unanswered questions for Alabama officials to responsibly move forward with this protocol,” the statement said. “Mr. Smith has already endured one botched execution; he should not now face another attempt that carries this much risk and uncertainty.” Alabama Reflector is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Alabama Reflector maintains editorial independence. Follow Alabama Reflector on Facebook and Twitter.
Alabama describes proposed nitrogen gas execution; seeks to become first state to carry it out
Alabama’s proposed procedures to carry out executions with nitrogen gas include fitting a mask over the inmate’s face and replacing their breathing air with nitrogen until their heart stops. The state described the procedures for the proposed new execution method in a redacted court filing. Alabama is seeking to become the first state to execute a prisoner using nitrogen. Nitrogen hypoxia has been authorized as an execution method in Alabama, Oklahoma, and Mississippi, but no state has used the method to carry out a death sentence. Nitrogen makes up 78% of the air inhaled by humans and is harmless when inhaled with proper levels of oxygen. Under the proposed execution method of nitrogen hypoxia, an inmate would be forced to breathe only nitrogen, depriving them of oxygen needed to maintain bodily functions and causing them to die. Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall on Friday asked the Alabama Supreme Court to set an execution date for Kenneth Smith, 58, using nitrogen hypoxia as the method of execution. The attorney general’s office included a redacted copy of the protocol in a court filing asking a judge to dismiss a lawsuit filed by Smith. Smith, in seeking to block the state’s second attempt to execute him by lethal injection, had argued that nitrogen should be available. According to the protocol, the inmate would be escorted into the execution chamber, now used for lethal injections, placed on the gurney, and have a mask fitted over their face. The warden would then read the death warrant and give the inmate a chance to give a final statement up to two minutes long. Execution team members would then make a final inspection of the mask. The warden, from another room, would then “activate the nitrogen hypoxia system.” “After the nitrogen gas is introduced, it will be administered for 15 minutes or five minutes following a flatline indication on the EKG, whichever is longer,” the procedures stated. If Alabama carries out an execution by nitrogen, it will be the first new execution method since lethal injection was introduced in the 1970s. Deborah Denno, a death penalty expert at Fordham Law School, said that unlike lethal injection and electrocution, which have been used for decades, “experts could only speculate about how a state might conduct a nitrogen hypoxia execution.” She said the filed Alabama protocol does not provide answers because of its vagueness and heavy redactions. “This is a vague, sloppy, dangerous, and unjustifiably deficient protocol made all the more incomprehensible by heavy redaction in the most important places,” Denno wrote in an email. John Palombi, an attorney representing several death row inmates, said, “It will be difficult to fully analyze this protocol until a far less redacted version is made available.” “This is a complex procedure, and we have every right to be concerned when the Department of Corrections is not transparent about it, particularly when they have had such a bad track record recently,” Palombi wrote in an email. Alabama attempted to execute Smith by lethal injection last year, but called off the execution because of problems inserting an IV into his veins. It was the state’s second such instance within two months of being unable to put an inmate to death and its third since 2018. The day after Smith’s aborted execution, Gov. Kay Ivey announced a pause on executions to conduct an internal review of lethal injection procedures. The state resumed lethal injections last month. Alabama lawmakers approved nitrogen hypoxia as an alternate execution method in 2018 as death penalty states faced difficulty obtaining lethal injection drugs and ongoing litigation challenging the humaneness of lethal injection. “It’s readily available. It’s 78% of the air we breathe, and it will be a lot more humane to carry out a death sentence,” Trip Pittman, the former Alabama state senator who proposed the new execution method, said. Pittman said the inmate will pass out — similar to how aircraft passengers pass out when a plane depressurizes — and then die. Pittman disputed criticism that the method is experimental. He said that while no state has carried out a death sentence with nitrogen, people have died by breathing nitrogen during industrial accidents and suicide attempts, so the effects are known. Smith was one of two men convicted in the 1988 murder-for-hire slaying of Elizabeth Sennett. The other man convicted in the killing was executed in 2010. Charles Sennett, the victim’s husband and a Church of Christ pastor, killed himself when the investigation began to focus on him as a possible suspect, according to court documents. Republished with the permission of The Associated Press.
Alabama wants to be the 1st state to execute a prisoner by making him breathe only nitrogen
Alabama is seeking to become the first state to execute a prisoner by making him breathe pure nitrogen. The Alabama attorney general’s office on Friday asked the state Supreme Court to set an execution date for death row inmate Kenneth Eugene Smith, 58. The court filing indicated Alabama plans to put him to death by nitrogen hypoxia, an execution method that is authorized in three states but has never been used. Nitrogen hypoxia is caused by forcing the inmate to breathe only nitrogen, depriving them of oxygen and causing them to die. Nitrogen makes up 78% of the air inhaled by humans and is harmless when inhaled with oxygen. While proponents of the new method have theorized it would be painless, opponents have likened it to human experimentation. Alabama authorized nitrogen hypoxia in 2018 amid a shortage of drugs used to carry out lethal injections, but the state has not attempted to use it until now to carry out a death sentence. Oklahoma and Mississippi have also authorized nitrogen hypoxia but have not used it. The disclosure that Alabama is ready to use nitrogen hypoxia is expected to set off a new round of legal battles over the constitutionality of the method. The Equal Justice Initiative, a legal advocacy group that has worked on death penalty issues, said Alabama has a history of “failed and flawed executions and execution attempts” and “experimenting with a never before used method is a terrible idea.” “No state in the country has executed a person using nitrogen hypoxia, and Alabama is in no position to experiment with a completely unproven and unused method for executing someone,” Angie Setzer, a senior attorney with the Equal Justice Initiative, said. Alabama attempted to execute Smith by lethal injection last year, but called off the execution because of problems inserting an IV into his veins. It was the state’s second such instance within two months of being unable to put an inmate to death and its third since 2018. The day after Smith’s aborted execution, Gov. Kay Ivey announced a pause on executions to conduct an internal review of lethal injection procedures. The state resumed lethal injections last month. Smith was one of two men convicted in the 1988 murder-for-hire slaying of a preacher’s wife. The Alabama attorney general argued it is time to carry out the death sentence. “It is a travesty that Kenneth Smith has been able to avoid his death sentence for nearly 35 years after being convicted of the heinous murder-for-hire slaying of an innocent woman, Elizabeth Sennett,” Attorney General Steve Marshall said Friday in a statement. Alabama has been working for several years to develop the nitrogen hypoxia execution method but has disclosed little about its plans. The attorney general’s court filing did not describe the details of how the execution would be carried out. Corrections Commissioner John Hamm told reporters last month that a protocol was nearly complete. A number of Alabama inmates seeking to block their executions by lethal injection, including Smith, have argued they should be allowed to die by nitrogen hypoxia. Robert Grass, an attorney representing Smith, declined to comment Friday. Sennett was found dead on March 18, 1988, in the home she shared with her husband on Coon Dog Cemetery Road in Alabama’s Colbert County. Prosecutors said Smith was one of two men who were each paid $1,000 to kill Sennett on behalf of her husband, who was deeply in debt and wanted to collect on insurance. The slaying, and the revelations over who was behind it, rocked the small north Alabama community. The other man convicted in the killing was executed in 2010. Charles Sennett, the victim’s husband and a Church of Christ pastor, killed himself when the investigation began to focus on him as a possible suspect, according to court documents. Republished with the permission of The Associated Press.
U.S. Supreme Court sides with Alabama inmate who seeks to die by nitrogen hypoxia
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday sided with an Alabama death row inmate, who had his lethal injection called off at the last minute in November, and argues he should be put to death by nitrogen hypoxia when he is ultimately executed. Justices, without comment, rejected the Alabama attorney general’s request to review an 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision regarding inmate Kenneth Eugene Smith. The state argued the decision disregarded Supreme Court precedent that an inmate challenging an execution method must show that an alternative method is readily available, not just feasible. Alabama has authorized nitrogen hypoxia — death as a result of breathing pure nitrogen — as an execution method, but no state has attempted to use the untested method to put an inmate to death. Smith was scheduled to be put to death by lethal injection on Nov. 17, 2022, for the 1988 murder-for-hire slaying of a preacher’s wife. On the day of the execution, a divided 11th Circuit panel stayed the execution after Smith raised concerns about previous lethal injections in the state and suggested nitrogen hypoxia as an available alternative method. The Supreme Court disagreed and lifted the stay. However, prison officials ended up calling off Smith’s execution for the night after staff were unable to find a suitable vein to connect the second of two intravenous lines to Smith’s body. Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito dissented from the Supreme Court’s opinion, saying they would hear the case. “The Eleventh Circuit’s error is not only plain but also serious enough to warrant correction,” Thomas wrote in a dissent. Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey in November announced a pause in executions to conduct an internal review of procedures. The review came after problems with intravenous lines caused multiple executions to be canceled or delayed. The state is seeking to resume executions this summer. Attorneys for Smith have claimed his November execution attempt was botched. Smith has an ongoing lawsuit seeking to prevent the state from making a second attempt to execute him by lethal injection. “To subject Mr. Smith to a second execution by lethal injection would subject him to a torturous experience of unnecessary physical and psychological pain, as has been established through Alabama’s last three execution attempts,” Smith’s lawyers wrote in a December court filing. Prosecutors said Smith was one of two men who were each paid $1,000 to kill Elizabeth Sennett on behalf of her husband, who was deeply in debt and wanted to collect on insurance. The slaying, and the revelations over who was behind it, rocked the small north Alabama community. Republished with the permission of The Associated Press.
Steve Marshall argues, “There is no moratoriums on executions”
On Monday, Attorney General Steve Marshall told reporters in a press conference in Montgomery, “As far as I and my office are concerned, there is no moratorium (on executions), nor will there be.” Alabama Governor Kay Ivey in November asked the attorney general’s office not to schedule any more executions until a review was conducted of what went wrong in the botched execution of Kenny Smith, where the state failed to kill Smith by lethal injection. “I have not spoken with the Governor,” Marshall said. “I am not objecting to the review, but I am also saying that there is a time limit on the review.” Marshall said there was no moratorium and chastised the media for calling it a moratorium. Marshall explained that when the state obtains an order for an execution, it has to be carried out within a 24-hour period, but the Alabama Department of Corrections (ADOC) narrows that down to a six-hour window. That rule has been in place for years, long before Marshall or Ivey were in office. Marshall said that the review should be “expedited quickly.” Ivey ordered the review on November 21 after ADOC’s employees failed to find a vein to execute the murderer on November 17. “I look forward to having a conversation with the governor about this,” Marshall said. “But to me, it is a very discrete and limited investigation.” Marshall called the failed Kenny Smith execution “a travesty” because the victim’s family had waited 35 years for justice. “Almost half of Alabama’s population was not even born yet,” Marshall commented. Marshall laid the blame “at the feet of the inmates and their lawyers.” Marshall said that his attorneys were forced to respond to the “frivolous claims” of Smith’s attorneys before the Supreme Court, which took time, and that Smith resisted efforts by ADOC employees to insert the needle into the vein. “Much of that coverage has been sympathetic to Smith,” Marshall said, chastising the liberal media and dismissing Smith’s attorney’s claims that he was tortured in the botched execution attempt. Marshall said, “A cold-blooded killer complained about the prodding and poking. He is the monster.” Marshall and his accomplice, John Forrest Parker, were each paid $1000 to kill Elizabeth Sennett by her husband. Parker was executed in 2010. “She stabbed her six times with a six-inch survival knife,” Marshall said. “And then was beaten to a pulp so that her friends and family could not recognize her.” Marshall said, “Smith has succeeded only in postponing, not escaping that just punishment.” To connect with the author of this story, or to comment, email brandonmreporter@gmail.com.
Alabama fails to complete lethal injection for 3rd time
Alabama’s string of troubled lethal injections, which worsened late Thursday as prison workers aborted another execution because of a problem with intravenous lines, is unprecedented nationally, a group that tracks capital punishment said Friday. The uncompleted execution of Kenneth Eugene Smith was the state’s second such instance of being unable to kill an inmate in the past two months and its third since 2018. The state completed an execution in July, but only after a three-hour delay caused at least partly by the same problem with starting an IV line. A leader at the Death Penalty Information Center, an anti-death penalty group with a large database on executions, said no state other than Alabama has had to halt an execution in progress since 2017, when Ohio halted Alva Campbell’s lethal injection because workers couldn’t find a vein. According to Ngozi Ndulue, deputy director of the Washington-based group, the only other lethal injection stopped before an inmate died also was in Ohio in 2009. “So Alabama has more aborted lethal injections in the past few years than the rest of the country has overall,” she said. Something has obviously gone wrong with the state’s execution procedure, Ndulue said. “I think Alabama clearly has some explaining to do, but also some reflection to do about what is going wrong in its execution process,” she said. “The question is whether Alabama is going to take that seriously.” The Alabama Department of Corrections disputed that the cancellation was a reflection of problems. In a statement, it blamed the late-running court action for the cancellation because prison officials “had a short timeframe to complete its protocol.” Prison officials said they called off Smith’s execution for the night after they were unable to get the lethal injection underway within the 100-minute window between the courts clearing the way for it to begin and a midnight deadline when the death warrant expired for the day. The U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way for Smith’s execution when at about 10:20 p.m., it lifted a stay issued earlier in the evening by the 11th U.S Circuit Court of Appeals. But the state decided about an hour later that the lethal injection would not happen that evening. “We have no concerns about the state’s ability to carry out future lethal injection procedures,” the Alabama Department of Corrections said in an emailed statement. “The department will continue to review its processes, as it routinely does following each execution, to identify areas of improvement.” Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey also blamed Smith’s last-minute appeals as the reason “justice could not be carried out” U.S District Judge R. Austin Huffaker Jr. on Friday granted a request from Smith’s lawyers to visit with Smith and take photographs of his body. He also ordered the state to preserve notes and other materials related to what happened in the failed execution. Smith’s attorneys said they believe he may have been strapped to a gurney for four hours even though his final appeals were still underway. “Mr. Smith no doubt has injuries from the attempted execution — and certainly physical and testimonial evidence that needs to be preserved — that can and should be photographed and/or filmed,” lawyers for Smith wrote. Smith, who was scheduled to be put to death for the murder-for-hire slaying of a preacher’s wife in 1988, was returned to death row at Holman Prison after surviving the attempt, a prison official said. His lawyers declined to comment Friday morning. Corrections Commissioner John Hamm said prison staff tried for about an hour to get the two required intravenous lines connected to Smith, 57. Hamm said they established one line but were unsuccessful with a second line, which is required under the state’s protocol as a backup, after trying several locations on Smith’s body. Officials then tried a central line, which involves a catheter placed into a large vein. “We were not able to have time to complete that, so we called off the execution,” Hamm said. The initial postponement came after Smith’s final appeals focused on problems with IV lines at Alabama’s last two scheduled lethal injections. Because the death warrant expired at midnight, the state must go back to court to seek a new execution date. Advocacy groups and defense lawyers said Alabama’s continued problems show a need for a moratorium to investigate how the death penalty is carried out in the state. “Once again, the state of Alabama has shown that it is not capable of carrying out the present execution protocol without torture,” federal defender John Palombi, who has represented many death row inmates in the state, said via email Prosecutors said Smith was one of two men who were each paid $1,000 to kill Elizabeth Sennett on behalf of her husband, who was deeply in debt and wanted to collect the insurance. The slaying — and the revelations of who was behind it — rocked the small north Alabama community where it happened in Colbert County and inspired a song called “The Fireplace Poker,” by the Southern rock group Drive-By Truckers. John Forrest Parker, the other man convicted in the slaying, was executed in 2010. Alabama has faced scrutiny over its problems at recent lethal injections. In ongoing litigation, lawyers for inmates are seeking information about the qualifications of the execution team members responsible for connecting the lines. In a Thursday hearing in Smith’s case, a federal judge asked the state how long was too long to try to establish a line, noting at least one state gives an hour limit. The execution of Joe Nathan James Jr. in July took several hours to get underway because of problems establishing an IV line, leading Reprieve US Forensic Justice Initiative, an anti-death penalty group, to claim the execution was botched. In September, the state called off the scheduled execution of Alan Miller because of difficulty accessing his veins. Miller said in a court filing that prison staff poked him with needles for more than an hour, and at one point, left him hanging vertically on a gurney before announcing they were
Alabama calls off execution of Kenneth Smith after difficulties inserting IV
Alabama’s execution of a man convicted in the 1988 murder-for-hire slaying of a preacher’s wife was called off Thursday just before the midnight deadline because state officials couldn’t find a suitable vein to inject the lethal drugs. Alabama Department of Corrections Commissioner John Hamm said prison staff tried for about an hour to get the two required intravenous lines connected to Kenneth Eugene Smith, 57. Hamm said they established one line but were unsuccessful with a second line after trying several locations on Smith’s body. Officials then tried a central line, which involves a catheter placed into a large vein. “We were not able to have time to complete that, so we called off the execution,” Hamm said. It is the second execution since September the state has canceled because of difficulties with establishing an IV line with a deadline looming. The U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way for Smith’s execution when at about 10:20 p.m., it lifted a stay issued earlier in the evening by the 11th U.S Circuit Court of Appeals. But the state decided about an hour later that the lethal injection would not happen that evening. The postponement came after Smith’s final appeals focused on problems with intravenous lines at Alabama’s last two scheduled lethal injections. Because the death warrant expired at midnight, the state must go back to court to seek a new execution date. Smith was returned to his regular cell on death row, a prison spokesperson said. Prosecutors said Smith was one of two men who were each paid $1,000 to kill Elizabeth Sennett on behalf of her husband, who was deeply in debt and wanted to collect on insurance. The slaying, and the revelations over who was behind it, rocked the small north Alabama community Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey blamed Smith’s last-minute appeals for the execution not going forward as scheduled. “Kenneth Eugene Smith chose $1,000 over the life of Elizabeth Dorlene Sennett, and he was guilty, no question about it. Some three decades ago, a promise was made to Elizabeth’s family that justice would be served through a lawfully imposed death sentence,” Ivey said. “Although that justice could not be carried out tonight because of last minute legal attempts to delay or cancel the execution, attempting it was the right thing to do.” Alabama has faced scrutiny over its problems at recent lethal injections. In ongoing litigation, lawyers for inmates are seeking information about the qualifications of the execution team members responsible for connecting the lines. In a Thursday hearing in Smith’s case, a federal judge asked the state how long was too long to try to establish a line, noting at least one state gives an hour limit. The execution of Joe Nathan James Jr. took several hours to get underway because of problems establishing an IV line, leading an anti-death penalty group to claim the execution was botched. In September, the state called off the scheduled execution of Alan Miller because of difficulty accessing his veins. Miller said in a court filing that prison staff poked him with needles for more than an hour, and at one point, they left him hanging vertically on a gurney before announcing they were stopping. Prison officials have maintained the delays were the result of the state carefully following procedures. Sennett was found dead on March 18, 1988, in the home she shared with her husband on Coon Dog Cemetery Road in Alabama’s Colbert County. The coroner testified that the 45-year-old woman had been stabbed eight times in the chest and once on each side of the neck. Her husband, Charles Sennett Sr., who was the pastor of the Westside Church of Christ, killed himself when the murder investigation focused on him as a suspect, according to court documents. John Forrest Parker, the other man convicted in the slaying, was executed in 2010. “I’m sorry. I don’t ever expect you to forgive me. I really am sorry,” Parker said to the victim’s sons before he was put to death. According to appellate court documents, Smith told police in a statement that it was “agreed for John and I to do the murder” and that he took items from the house to make it look like a burglary. Smith’s defense at trial said he participated in the attack, but he did not intend to kill her, according to court documents. In the hours before the execution was scheduled to be carried out, the prison system said Smith visited with his attorney and family members, including his wife. He ate cheese curls and drank water but declined the prison breakfast offered to him. Smith was initially convicted in 1989, and a jury voted 10-2 to recommend a death sentence, which a judge imposed. His conviction was overturned on appeal in 1992. He was retried and convicted again in 1996. The jury recommended a life sentence by a vote of 11-1, but a judge overrode the recommendation and sentenced Smith to death. In 2017, Alabama became the last state to abolish the practice of letting judges override a jury’s sentencing recommendation in death penalty cases, but the change was not retroactive and therefore did not affect death row prisoners like Smith. The Equal Justice Initiative, an Alabama-based nonprofit that advocates for inmates, said Smith stands to become the first state prisoner sentenced by judicial override to be executed since the practice was abolished. The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday denied Smith’s request to review the constitutionality of his death sentence on those grounds. Republished with the permission of The Associated Press.
Execution set in murder-for-hire of preacher’s wife
Alabama is preparing to execute a man convicted in the 1988 murder-for-hire slaying of a preacher’s wife, even though a jury recommended he receive life imprisonment instead of a death sentence. Kenneth Eugene Smith, 57, is scheduled to receive a lethal injection at a south Alabama prison on Thursday evening. Prosecutors said Smith was one of two men who were each paid $1,000 to kill Elizabeth Sennett on behalf of her husband, who was deeply in debt and wanted to collect on insurance. Elizabeth Sennett was found dead on March 18, 1988, in the couple’s home on Coon Dog Cemetery Road in Alabama’s Colbert County. The coroner testified that the 45-year-old woman had been stabbed eight times in the chest and once on each side of the neck. Her husband, Charles Sennett Sr, who was the pastor of the Westside Church of Christ in Sheffield, killed himself one week after his wife’s death when the murder investigation started to focus on him as a suspect, according to court documents. ADVERTISEMENT Smith’s final appeals focused on the state’s difficulties with intravenous lines at the last two scheduled lethal injections. One execution was carried out after a delay, and the other was called off as the state faced a midnight deadline to get the execution underway. Smith’s attorneys also raised the issue that judges are no longer allowed to sentence an inmate to death if a jury recommends a life sentence. John Forrest Parker, the other man convicted in the slaying, was executed in 2010. “I’m sorry. I don’t ever expect you to forgive me. I really am sorry,” Parker said to the victim’s sons before he was put to death. According to appellate court documents, Smith told police in a statement that it was, “agreed for John and I to do the murder” but that he just took items from the house to make it look like a burglary. Smith’s defense at trial said he agreed to beat up Elizabeth Sennett but that he did not intend to kill her, according to court documents. The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday denied Smith’s request to review the constitutionality of his death sentence. Smith was initially convicted in 1989, and a jury voted 10-2 to recommend a death sentence, which a judge imposed. His conviction was overturned on appeal in 1992. He was retried and convicted again in 1996. This time, the jury recommended a life sentence by a vote of 11-1, but a judge overrode the jury’s recommendation and sentenced Smith to death. In 2017, Alabama became the last state to abolish the practice of letting judges override a jury’s sentencing recommendation in death penalty cases, but the change was not retroactive and therefore did not affect death row prisoners like Smith. The Equal Justice Initiative, an Alabama-based nonprofit that advocates for inmates, said that Smith stands to become the first state prisoner sentenced by judicial override to be executed since the practice was abolished. Smith filed a lawsuit against the state seeking to block his upcoming execution because of reported problems at recent lethal injections. Smith’s attorneys pointed to a July execution of Joe Nathan James Jr., which an anti-death penalty group claimed was botched. The state disputed those claims. A federal judge dismissed Smith’s lawsuit last month, but also cautioned prison officials to strictly follow established protocol when carrying out Thursday’s execution plan. In September, the state called off the scheduled execution of inmate Alan Miller because of difficulty accessing his veins. Miller said in a court filing that prison staff poked him with needles for over an hour, and at one point, they left him hanging vertically on a gurney before announcing they were stopping for the night. Prison officials said they stopped because they were facing a midnight deadline to get the execution underway. Republished with the permission of The Associated Press.
