Who is Kenneth Smith and why is he executed in Alabama, United States?

(CNN Spanish) — Alabama plans to carry out the first execution with nitrogen gas in US history this week.

Inmate Kenneth Smith is the man who will be executed using the nitrogen hypoxia method, which has come under fire because Alabama has withheld key details of how it works.

Amid the uncertainty, Smith and his lawyers, along with experts from the United States and the UN, have questioned whether the potential complications of the nitrogen gas procedure could cause excessive pain or torture to the inmate, who had previously requested his death sentence. This method instead of lethal injection.

For its part, Alabama, which is one of three US states to allow the use of nitrogen gas as a death penalty, indicated this week that it was “prepared” to execute Smith by nitrogen hypoxia.

The other two states that have allowed executions with nitrogen gas are Oklahoma and Mississippi, but neither has used it, so Alabama will be the first in history.

Smith is expected to be executed by nitrogen gas in a 30-hour execution window between this Thursday and Friday.

Who is Kenneth Smith and why is he sentenced to death?

Kenneth Eugene Smith was sentenced to death in Alabama in 1988 for his role in the contract killing of Elizabeth Sennett. According to court records, her husband, minister Charles Sennett, hired two others, including Smith, to kill his wife and pass it off as loot.

Sennett, who the courts heard had a mistress and took out an insurance policy for his wife, killed himself a week after the murder, as investigators focused on him. Smith was eventually arrested after investigators searched his home and found Sennett’s video recorder.

Smith’s case was tried by a jury twice, according to Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall. In his second trial, which took place in 1996, Smith’s jury voted 11-1 to recommend life in prison, but the judge reversed and imposed the death penalty.

Smith expressed a desire to be executed for nitrogen hypoxia before Alabama attempted to execute him by lethal injection in November 2022. The state aborted that attempt because officials could not place the IV before the execution order expired.

Smith shared his desire to run with nitrogen again after the lethal injection attempt, then changed his mind in August, when the state suddenly agreed to use the nitrogen hypoxia method and released a heavily redacted protocol. Smith then challenged the protocol, claiming it exposed him to “additional pain,” could cause a stroke if it failed or leave him in a vegetative state, according to court records.

A federal judge’s ruling this month cleared the way for Alabama to move forward with nitrogen execution, finding that there was “insufficient evidence to conclude” that the protocol would cause Smith “additional suffering” and while the judge acknowledged that “extensively improved” While the protocol maintained the Department of Corrections’ “well-known veil of secrecy over execution procedures,” he also noted that Alabama provided an unrelated protocol to Smith’s team. More details, including the specific masks that will be used, were revealed at oral arguments last month.

The sentence puts Alabama “an important step toward holding Kenneth Smith accountable” for Senate’s murder, prosecutor Steve Marshall said in a Jan. 10 statement. “Smith has avoided his legal sentence of death for more than 35 years, but the court’s ruling … removes one obstacle to Smith’s speculative claims finally being served.”

With reporting by CNN’s Dakin Andon, Jameel Lynch, Ariane de Vog and Emma Tucker. This news was previously published on January 24 and updated on January 25, 2024.