Kenneth Eugene Smith’s spiritual advisor describes first-ever nitrogen gas execution: ‘Horror show’
A spiritual advisor to the first man in the US to be executed with nitrogen gas said prison staff could not mask their shock at the “horror show” taking place in front of them.
“There was clear shock and surprise on their faces,” Rev. Jeff Hood told The Post.
Hood described the 22-minute death of Kenneth Eugene Smith, 58, at Alabama’s WC Holman Correctional Facility as a scene from a horror movie.
“They were told this is going to be quick, easy and painless. They kept saying this is the most humane way society has ever figured out how to execute people.
“The whole thing was just horrific. It’s a scene that will never leave me. Some of [Smith’s] struggles looked produced for Hollywood.
“If you had taken me in there and not told me I was at an execution I would think I was on a movie set, some sort of horrible creation gone amok,” he said.
Smith was sentenced to die for his role in the 1988 murder-for-hire of preacher’s wife Elizabeth Sennett. He spent more than three decades behind bars before being executed via the controversial method of nitrogen hypoxia.
The case garnered national attention after Smith survived a botched attempt to end his life via lethal injection in November 2022, which was aborted when doctors failed to find a vein to inject the deadly drug cocktail after trying for hours.
Hood said from his vantage point inside the execution chamber he had a bird’s-eye view of the prison staffers overseeing Smith’s demise.
He noticed an undeniable change in the facial expressions and body language of the staff, which included corrections officers and Alabama Department of Corrections Regional Director Cynthia Stewart-Riley.
“In that circumstance it’s hard to know what is what, but I know what I saw in terms of the horror on the faces of people in front of me,” Hood said.
“When the execution started and he began to writhe, it was noticeable that staff members began to shift around,” he continued.
“He looked like a fish out of water, flapping over and over again. As all of that happened [Stewart-Riley] was behind the gurney to his right. She was so disturbed and nervous that she kept tapping her feet over and over again, like how when you’re disturbed by something you fidget and are unable to sit still,” he said, saying the sounds of her shoes nervously tapping sounded “like tap dancing.”
Alabama DOC did not respond to a request for comment by The Post.
Hood said he could hear an audible gasp through the glass of the execution chamber as the process began.
“In that circumstance it’s hard to know what is what, but I know what I saw in terms of the horror on the faces of people in front of me.”
He said the facial expressions of prison staffers witnessing the execution went from loose and casual to “very tense and very tight” as the seconds and minutes ticked by.
“No doubt they were affected” by what they were witnessing, Hood said.
Smith appeared to remain conscious for several minutes during the more than 20 minute execution period, according to Associated Press.
The execution was already controversial, both because of the previous failed attempt as well as being the first time nitrogen gas has been used to take an inmate’s life.
“I’m still suffering from the first execution and now we’re doing this again. They won’t let me even have post-traumatic stress disorder,” Smith told the Guardian earlier this week.
Following the execution, Alabama Corrections Commissioner John Q. Hamm said “nothing was out of the ordinary from what we were expecting,” words Hood strongly took issue with.
“I think he’s a liar. [Alabama Attorney General Steve] Marshall said the same thing. They’re liars. They said all along that this was going to be nearly instantaneous. That he would be gone, unconscious, in seconds. What we saw last night was minutes, minutes, and minutes of a horror show,” the spiritual advisor said.
After a post-execution press conference, Hood said he had an opportunity to speak with Elizabeth Sennett’s family, who he said were “very kind.”
“I had a really good conversation. It felt like a moment of real humanity. Obviously we had big differences — they wanted the execution to happen and we didn’t — but they were very clearly concerned about Kenny’s family and the other people involved. I think that speaks a lot to who they are,” Hood said.
“Everybody wants all of us to hate each other, but we were all brutalized by the whole process.”
