Kenneth Smith: Alabama murderer becomes first inmate in the world executed with ‘painless’ nitrogen gas
A prisoner in Alabama has become the first inmate in the world to be executed with nitrogen gas.
Convicted murderer Kenneth Smith, 58, was put to death after the US Supreme Court declined a legal bid to halt his sentence.
His official time of death was 8.25pm on Thursday (2.25am UK time).
According to witnesses, the execution took about 22 minutes and Smith appeared to remain conscious for several minutes.
For at least two minutes, he appeared to shake and writhe, sometimes pulling against the restraints. That was followed by several minutes of heavy breathing, until breathing was no longer perceptible.
State authorities had predicted unconsciousness within seconds and death within minutes.
In a final statement, Smith said: “Tonight Alabama causes humanity to take a step backwards… I’m leaving with love, peace and light.”
He made the ‘I love you sign’ toward his wife and other family members who were witnesses. “Thank you for supporting me. Love, love all of you,” Smith said.
Humane death or lethal experiment? How nitrogen execution works
The use of nitrogen gas is highly controversial and critics say it’s cruel and experimental. It had never been used before anywhere.
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.
Elizabeth Sennett was stabbed and beaten to death. Pic: Family handout
Smith was convicted in the 1988 murder-for-hire killing of Elizabeth Sennett.
Prosecutors said he was one of two men who were each paid $1,000 to kill Ms Sennett on behalf of her pastor husband, who was deeply in debt and wanted to collect on insurance.
She was found with eight stab wounds to the chest and one in each side of her neck.
The other killer, John Forrest Parker, was executed in 2010.
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.
Campaigners turned up outside the Alabama prison. Pic: Reuters
Law enforcement monitored the gate as Smith’s execution took place. Pic: AP
“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.”
‘Mom got justice’
“Alabama has achieved something historic,” said state attorney general Steve Marshall.
“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.”
Mike Sennett, the son of Smith’s victim, called it a ‘bittersweet day’. Pic: AP
Reverend Jeff Hood, who witnessed the execution, said the reality did not match Alabama’s predictions of a quick death.
“We didn’t see somebody go unconscious in 30 seconds. What we saw was minutes of someone struggling for their life,” he said.
Reverend Hood said Smith had a final meal of T-bone steak, hash browns, toast and eggs in steak sauce.
Mike Sennett, the son of Smith’s victim, spoke to media after the execution.
“Nothing happened here today is going to bring Mom back. It’s kind of a bittersweet day,” he said.
“We are not going to be jumping around. whooping and holler, hooray and all that… I’ll end by saying Elizabeth Dorlene Sennett got her justice tonight.”
Pic: Alabama law enforcement mugshot from 1980s
Smith’s execution comes after he survived a botched lethal injection in 2022 when officials tried unsuccessfully for hours to put an intravenous line into his body.
The incident 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 – 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.
US
Donald Trump ‘not thinking about Melania’ when he paid off Stormy Daniels, says ex-lawyer Michael Cohen
Donald Trump “wasn’t thinking about (his wife) Melania” when he paid off a former porn star, his former lawyer has testified.
Michael Cohen told a court Mr Trump personally approved $130,000 in hush money to Stormy Daniels over an alleged 2006 sexual encounter.
The payout isn’t illegal, but Mr Trump is accused of falsifying records to hide it – a claim he denies.
On Monday, his trial in New York heard from Mr Cohen, once a lawyer and self-described “fixer” for the ex-president.
Mr Trump’s lawyers have painted the hush money as an attempt to protect his wife from rumours and upset.
Michael Cohen has himself been jailed over the payment to Daniels. Pic: Reuters
However, Mr Cohen said his boss was purely concerned with keeping the claims quiet as he ran for the presidency.
“He wasn’t thinking about Melania. This was all about the campaign,” he said, prompting Mr Trump to shake his head in response.
Mr Cohen told the court he’d heard Stormy Daniels was considering selling her story and he told his boss swift action was required.
Mr Trump denies the affair and his lawyers say Mr Cohen acted on his own – a claim he denied in court.
He told jurors in Manhattan that “everything required Mr Trump’s sign-off” and he was ordered to “just do it”.
Mr Cohen said he stumped up the $130,000 himself after Mr Trump told him he would pay him back.
He said he set up a shell company – listed as a “real estate consulting company” – to make the payment.
Stormy Daniels, pictured in January. Pic: AP
Prosecutors say Mr Trump later paid the money back and covered it up by recording it as a legal retainer fee.
He faces 34 counts of falsifying business records over the claims.
Read more:
Porn stars, sex scandals and zzzs: A to Z of Trump trial
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Hear Trump and his lawyer discuss hush money
The court also heard a recording of a conversation between Mr Trump and Mr Cohen over hush money said to have been paid to another woman, former Playboy model Karen McDougal, who he also allegedly had an affair with.
Mr Cohen suggests in the recording setting up another company to repay David Pecker – who said he provided the $150,000 to cover up the story.
The former National Enquirer boss previously testified he bought the story to keep it hidden and eventually decided against seeking reimbursement.
Later in the recording, Mr Trump can be heard suggesting the $150,000 might be better off being paid in cash.
Mr Cohen told the court this was to “avoid any type of paper transaction”.
The 57-year-old – who once said he would take a bullet for Mr Trump – worked for him for nearly a decade.
Stormy Daniels, pictured in January. Pic: AP
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He pleaded guilty to violating campaign finance law in 2018 over the Stormy Daniels payment and was jailed, but at the time prosecutors did not bring charges against Mr Trump.
Mr Cohen’s credibility is in the sights of defence lawyers as he has previously admitted lying under oath.
Mr Trump – who will take on Joe Biden in his bid to become president again in November – is unlikely to face a custodial sentence if found guilty.
His other cases are potentially more damaging but mired in delays.
They concern allegations of keeping stacks of secret documents after leaving office and trying to overturn his 2020 election defeat. He denies the claims.
A livestream portal between Dublin and New York was temporarily shut down after “inappropriate behaviour” in the Irish capital.
Thousands of people have visited the two-way portal, which allows people on either side to see and interact with each other.
And while there have been a number of wholesome moments – including Irish dancing and even a proposal – a handful of people have behaved “inappropriately”, Dublin City Council has said.
Videos on social media have shown people on the Irish side flashing body parts, and displaying images of 9/11 and swear words on phone screens.
A woman was also escorted away by police after being seen grinding against the portal.
In a statement issued on Monday evening, a spokesperson for Dublin City Council said “technical solutions” to address this are being implemented in the next 24 hours.
People in each city could be seen greeting each other when the portal opened last week. Pic: Reuters
“We will continue to monitor the situation over the coming days with our partners in New York to ensure that Portals continue to deliver a positive experience for both cities and the world,” they said.
“The team at portals.org and partners are still working on improving the software for better stability and to prepare for Portals to expand to more locations on Earth.
“Those works are being done mostly at night and during those hours, the livestream might be paused.”
Dublin City Council noted there has been an increase in footfall since the Portal was unveiled in north Dublin, facing O’Connell Street. The New York portal is at the busy Manhattan junction of Broadway, Fifth Avenue and 23rd Street.
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Most interactions via the portals have been wholesome. Pic: Reuters
“The overwhelming majority of interactions are positive,” the spokesperson added. “We have seen families and friends unite, dancing moves being shared as well as new friendships being made. There was even a successful marriage proposal.
“The Portal offers a window to other cities and is connecting people and cultures in a unique manner – what we are seeing between Dublin and NY is reflective of a wider narrative of cultural behaviour.”
The Portals Organisation said: “We do not intend to suggest people to interact with Portals in any particular way – our goal is to open a window between far away places and cultures that allows people to interact freely with one another.
“We encourage people to be respectful and from our position as observers, we see that the absolute majority of experiences is on the bright side.”
In an earlier statement, they confirmed the livestream had been paused so they could “update the software used on the Portal”.
The new version of the ChatGPT AI chatbot has been unveiled and offers near-instant results across text, vision and audio, according to its maker.
OpenAI said it was much better at understanding visuals and sounds than previous versions.
It offers the prospect of real-time ‘conversations’ with the chatbot, including the ability to interrupt its answers.
The firm says it “accepts as input any combination of text, audio, and image and generates any combination of text, audio, and image outputs”.
GPT-4o is to be rolled out over the next few weeks amid a battle by tech firms to develop ever-more advanced artificial intelligence tools.
Monday’s announcement showed tasks such as real-time language translation; using its vision capability to solve a maths question on a piece of paper, and to guide a blind person around London.
GPT-4o can respond to audio in as little as 232 milliseconds, with an average of 320 milliseconds, which the company says is similar to human response time.
To try to ease concerns over bias, fairness and misinformation, the Microsoft-backed company says the new version has undergone extensive testing by 70 external experts.
It comes after Google earlier this year had a major PR blunder over images generated by its Gemini AI system.
GPT-4o model will be free, but premium ‘Plus’ users get a greater capacity limit for messages.
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Previous versions of the chatbot have caused unease in schools and universities due to some students using it to cheat by producing convincing essays.
When it launched two years ago, ChatGPT was said to be the fastest-ever app to reach 100 million active monthly users.
The announcement also stole a march on Google, which is expected to tomorrow show off its own new AI features at its annual developers’ conference.
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