The wife of killer Kenneth Eugene Smith reportedly screamed as she struggled against her restraints for the 22 minutes it took for him to become the first person in the US to be killed by nitrogen gas — which her victim’s daughter said marked her mother finally getting “justice” 36 years after her murder.
Eugene Smith – who previously survived a botched execution day – appeared to remain conscious for several minutes Thursday when he was inhaling toxic gas through a mask, depriving him of oxygen until he suffocated at Holman Prison in Atmore, Ala.
As the killer refused his restraints, his wife, Deanna — wearing a “Never Alone” T-shirt — yelled at him from the witness stand, according to reporters at the scene.
He was joined by other family members to witness the execution, which took about 22 minutes — far more than the family had been told, according to the family’s spiritual adviser, Jeff Hood.
Hood called it the “worst thing” he’d ever seen – claiming even prison officials were “shocked at how bad this was.”
“We haven’t seen someone pass out in 30 seconds,” Hood said, standing with Smith’s wife.
“What we saw was a few minutes of someone fighting for their life,” he said.
Alabama Department of Corrections
Deanna Smith, the wife of convicted killer Kenneth Eugene Smith, reportedly cried for her husband as he struggled against his restraints on Thursday. AND ANDERSON/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
“We saw a few minutes of someone rocking back and forth. We saw spit. We see all sorts of stuff from his mouth growing on the mask. We saw this mask strapped to a gurney, and he was ripping his head forward over and over again.”
He repeated the killer’s final statement that “Alabama caused humanity to take a step back.”
“Kenny Smith is not a perfect man, but we have to make sure this never happens again,” Hood said.
The commissioner of the Alabama prison system, John Hamm, insisted that the execution was going as planned.
“It looks like Smith is holding his breath as long as he can,” Hamm said. “He struggled a bit against the restraints but it was involuntary movements and some painful breathing. So that’s all to be expected.”
Smith was one of two men convicted in the murder-for-hire of a preacher’s wife in 1988. Each man was paid $1,000 to kill Elizabeth Sennett on behalf of her husband, Charles Sennett, who wanted to collect insurance money.
Sennet was found stabbed to death in his home. The preacher killed himself a week after his death as detectives pursued him as a suspect.
Sennett’s son, Mike, called the sentencing a “bittersweet day.”
“We’re not going to jump around, shout and shout ‘hooray’ and all that. That’s not us,” Mike said at a press conference. “But we’re glad the day is over.”
He described Eugene Smith’s death sentence as a “weight off his shoulders” – saying his family forgave all three men involved in his mother’s murder “years ago.”
“I forgive him,” he said of Smith. “I forgive him [for] what is he doing. I don’t like what he did, but they are forgiven from us.
“The Bible says bad deeds have consequences – and Kenneth Smith made some bad decisions 35 years ago – and his debt is paid tonight,” the son said.
“Elizabeth Dorlene Thorne Sennett gets her justice tonight.”
With Postal wire.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
