A prisoner in Alabama has become the first inmate in the world to be executed with nitrogen gas.
Convicted murderer Kenneth Smith was put to death after the US Supreme Court declined his legal bid to halt his execution.
His official time of death was recorded at 8.25pm on Thursday evening local time (2.25am Friday, UK GMT).
In a statement Alabama state governor Kay Ivey said: “On March 18, 1988, 45-year-old Elizabeth Sennett’s life was brutally taken from her by Kenneth Eugene Smith.
“After more than 30 years and attempt after attempt to game the system, Mr Smith has answered for his horrendous crimes.
“The execution was lawfully carried out by nitrogen hypoxia, the method previously requested by Mr Smith as an alternative to lethal injection.
“At long last, Mr Smith got what he asked for, and this case can finally be put to rest.
“I pray that Elizabeth Sennett’s family can receive closure after all these years dealing with that great loss.”
The Alabama attorney general Steve Marshall said: “Alabama has achieved something historic. Like most states, Alabama has made the judgement that some crimes are so horrific that they warrant the ultimate penalty.
“But anti-death-penalty activists have worked to nullify that moral judgement through pressure campaigns against anyone assisting states in the process.
“They don’t care that Alabama’s new method is humane and effective, because they know it is also easy to carry out.”
The use of nitrogen gas as a method of execution is highly controversial and had never been used before in the world.
It involves clamping a mask tightly to the face, covering the mouth and nose. The mask is then fed with nitrogen gas. The person continues to breathe normally, but with no oxygen present the body gradually shuts down until death occurs – effectively they are suffocated.
Smith’s execution comes after he survived a botched lethal injection in 2022 which helped prompt a review of the state’s death penalty procedures.
The Supreme Court justices declined to uphold Smith’s legal challenge that claimed a second execution attempt by Alabama – after the first failure caused him severe trauma – would violate the US Constitution’s 8th Amendment protections against cruel and unusual punishment.
However the decision was not unanimous, with three justices voting to halt the execution.
“Having failed to kill Smith on its first attempt, Alabama has selected him as its ‘guinea pig’ to test a method of execution never attempted before,” Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote, saying she would have granted the injunction.
“The world is watching.”
Just minutes before the execution was carried out, the Supreme Court refused for a second time to intervene to stop it going ahead.
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Gaza City residents say Israel carried out intense overnight bombardments as it prepares a controversial offensive to take control of the area.
Sixty-thousand reservists are being called up after Benjamin Netanyahu‘s security cabinet approved the plan earlier this month.
UN chief Antonio Guterres has warned of more “death and destruction” if Israel tries to seize the city, while France’s Emmanuel Macron said it would be a “disaster” that would lead to “permanent war”.
Hundreds of thousands of people could end up being forcibly displaced – a potential war crime, according to the UN’s human rights office.
Gaza’s health ministry said at least 70 people had been killed in Israeli attacks in the past 24 hours, including eight people in a house in the Sabra suburb of Gaza City.
Israel currently controls about 75% of the Gaza Strip, but Prime Minister Netanyahu has said Israel must take Gaza City to “finish the job” and defeat Hamas.
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Mr Netanyahu and his ministers are due to meet on Thursday to discuss the plans, according to Israeli media.
Military spokesperson Effie Defrin said earlier that “preliminary operations and the first stages of the attack” had begun – with troops operating on the outskirts of Gaza City.
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Aftermath of fresh Israeli strikes on Gaza
Residents said shelling has intensified in the Sabra and Tuffah neighbourhoods and that those fleeing have gone to coastal shelters or to central and southern parts of the Strip.
The decision to stay or leave is an agonising choice for many.
“We are facing a bitter-bitter situation, to die at home or leave and die somewhere else, as long as this war continues, survival is uncertain,” said father of seven Rabah Abu Elias.
“In the news, they speak about a possible truce, on the ground, we only hear explosions and see deaths. To leave Gaza City or not isn’t an easy decision to make,”
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Sky’s Adam Parsons explains what is in the new Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal.
Most of the Israeli reservists being summoned are not expected to be in a frontline combat role and the call-up is set to take a while.
The window could give mediators more time to convince Israel to accept a temporary ceasefire.
Hamas has already agreed to the proposal – envisaging 10 living hostages and 18 bodies being released in return for a 60-day truce and the freedom of about 200 Palestinian prisoners.
Israel hasn’t officially responded, but insists it wants all 50 remaining hostages released at once. Only 20 of them are still believed to be alive.
The war started nearly two years ago when a Hamas terror attack killed about 1,200 people and kidnapped around 250.
More than 62,000 Palestinians have been killed in the war, according to Gaza’s health ministry.
The figure doesn’t break down how many were Hamas members, but it says women and children make up more than half.
Two more people also died of starvation and malnutrition in the past 24 hours, the ministry said on Thursday, taking the total to 271, including 112 children.
COGAT, the body controlling aid into Gaza, said 250 aid trucks entered on Wednesday, with 154 pallets air-dropped.
Police, pathologists and grave diggers have started the exhumation of 27 shallow graves in Kenya’s Kilifi County.
The remains are believed to be of followers of a deadly cult in Chakama Ranch, a part of the Shakahola Forest.
In 2023, more than 400 mass graves were discovered in the same forest, all members of controversial preacher Paul Mackenzie’s church. They were encouraged to starve themselves to death to get into heaven.
It remains one of the world’s worst cult-related tragedies. Mackenzie is still in jail and faces numerous charges of terrorism, child torture and murder.
Image: Six bodies were exhumed in Chakama Ranch, a part of the Shakahola Forest, today
The remote forest has again been turned into a crime scene.
Morticians were seen carrying out body bag after body bag, some containing the remains of children believed to have been starved to death.
State pathologist Dr Richard Njoroge said this is just the beginning, as investigators expect to find many more bodies: “Today we managed to exhume six.
“Of the six graves, we found five bodies and then also around that area we found ten different scattered body parts, scattered in different places on the surface.”
Eleven suspects have already been arrested in connection with these deaths and will appear in court on Friday.
Police are investigating links to Mackenzie and members of his Good News International Church.
At the exhumation today, pathologists said they were still working to identify the bodies of those exhumed from Mackenzie’s cult.
“We had 453 at the closure of that exercise, I think, we released around 33 or 34 last time. So, from there are 419 remaining,” Dr Njoroge explained.
Police have encouraged families in the area with missing loved ones to come forward and provide their DNA samples, as efforts to identify the dead continue.
Kenya is grappling with a rise in religious extremism and many churches operating informally.
Parliament passed several preliminary bills aimed at regulating religious organisations last year, but implementation has stalled after resistance from church leaders.
Blindfolded and under armed guard, a captured ISIS fighter is brought before us.
When the blindfold is removed, he doesn’t look surprised to see a camera crew and several counterterrorism officers, one of whom interrogated him when he was first caught.
The 24-year-old militant is on death row in Somalia awaiting execution by firing squad, having been accused of being an ISIS commander, as well as a sniper and a member of a two-man bomb squad.
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Watch the documentary – Hunting for ISIS: A warning from Africa
US and Somali commanders say ISIS is running its global headquarters in Puntland’s caves, financing its activities worldwide.
Muthar Hamid Qaayid is from Yemen and came to Somalia via a sea route where we’ve witnessed how challenging it is to halt the flow of militant travellers.
He insists he wasn’t an active participant in the two-man bomb squad – and seems entirely unbothered about the situation he now finds himself in.
“I didn’t press the button,” he says. “I just looked. The other man made the bomb and set it off. I didn’t come here to kill Muslims.”
His partner blew himself up as he was planting the bomb in Bosaso city centre and realised he had been discovered.
Officers believe he detonated it prematurely.
The man in front of us was injured, and we are told he had incriminating bomb-making equipment with him.
I ask him if he has regrets about his involvement and joining the militant group.
“I don’t regret anything,” he says, smiling. “Even if you take me out of the room now and execute me, I don’t regret anything.” Again, another smile.
“If they shoot me or hang me, I don’t mind. In the end, I don’t care.”
Tellingly, he says his family does not like ISIS. “If they found me here, they’d be upset,” he says.
Despite persistent questions, he doesn’t shift much. “I’m not thinking,” he insists. “There’s nothing. I’m just waiting for death.”
Image: The ISIS militant speaks to Sky’s Alex Crawford
I ask if he’d heard of people being killed by the bombs he’s accused of planting.
“Yes, but they don’t kill all people,” he insists.
But what about killing anyone, I suggest, slightly puzzled.
“They don’t kill everyone,” he continues. There’s a pause. “Only infidels”.
Infidels is a term many recruits use to describe those who simply don’t agree with their strict interpretation of Sharia – that can include Muslims as well as other religions.
Officials show us multiple foreign passports recovered from ISIS cave hideouts in Puntland and from those they’ve captured or killed.
Image: Passports seized from ISIS hideouts and fighters
There are passports for whole families from South Africa, including children, as well as ones from Germany, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, and Bahrain.
There are also handfuls of IDs which show European faces.
Since a Puntland army offensive was launched last December, just five of the 600 ISIS fighters killed have been Somalis, says Mohamed Abdirahman Dhabancad, Puntland’s political affairs representative.
‘The main target was to rule the world’
The second prisoner brought before us is from Morocco and is much more talkative.
Usman Bukukar Bin Fuad insists he was duped by ISIS and says he only travelled to Somalia because he’d heard he could make money.
Image: Usman Bukukar Bin Fuad claims he only dug caves for ISIS
“Instead, I ended up digging caves,” he says. “It was difficult to escape but when they told me to put on a suicide vest to kill Puntland forces, I said this is not what you told me I would be doing – and I escaped.”
He says he was given a weapon but never used it – a claim not believed by his captors.
“I never joined any fight,” he insists. “I had my weapon [AK47] but I just did normal duties taking supplies from location to location and following orders.”
He says he met the ISIS leader in Somalia, Abdul Qadir Mumin, several times.
“He used to visit all the ISIS camps and encourage them to fight.”
“And he’d reassure us all about going to heaven,” he adds.
It seems to lend credence to the belief that Mumin is still alive and operating – up until a few months ago anyway.
He says he was given training in sniping (which he didn’t finish) and map reading, which was interrupted when the Puntland military offensive began.
He says he travelled over from Ethiopia with six Moroccans, before meeting an Algerian recruit.
Fellow militants in the ISIS mountain stronghold were from countries including Tunisia, Libya, Tanzania, Kenya, Turkey, Argentina, Bangladesh, Sweden, and Iraq.
“The main target or focus was to rule the world,” he says. “Starting with this region as one of the gates to the world, then Ethiopia and the rest of the world.
“I heard so much talk about sending ISIS fighters to Bosaso, Ethiopia or Yemen. Sending people to other parts of the world and ruling the world was all part of the plan.”
The captives’ information has added to the belief that Puntland and Somalia is just the tip of a huge ISIS problem which is spreading and is able to cause terror in a range of ways.
Alex Crawford reports from Somalia with specialist producer Chris Cunningham and Richie Mockler. Photography by Chris Cunningham