Kenneth Eugene Smith

Kenneth Eugene Smith (July 4, 1965 – January 25, 2024, Atmore, Alabama) was an American murderer who became the first person to die by inert gas asphyxiation.

Murder of Elizabeth Sennett

Smith was sentenced to death for the murder of Elisabeth Sennett in 1988, he and another man accepted $1,000 to end her life, the order was carried out by Sennett's husband who intended to collect the life insurance. to pay off some debts. ​Smith's accomplice, a man named John Forrest Parker, was also sentenced to death and executed in 2010.

Attempted execution and final execution

In November 2022, Smith was scheduled to be executed by lethal injection, but the execution was stayed after the execution team was unable to connect the intravenous lines to Smith in the time available before the expiration of the death warrant issued by the Alabama Supreme Court. As part of a settlement between the state and Smith, the state agreed not to pursue Smith's execution by lethal injection (the default primary method of execution in Alabama) and instead utilize a secondary novel method of execution, nitrogen hypoxia., after endless appeals, calls for international clemency and the declaration of the United Nations that declared that the method could be torture, he was finally executed in Holman Prison.