First execution using nitrogen hypoxia: Contract killer Kenneth Smith dies after 20 years on death row
ATMORE, Ala. — After more than two decades on death row, contract killer and Alabama native Kenneth Smith was executed by nitrogen hypoxia on Thursday. This marks the first time this method has been used for an execution, a move that has been deemed “experimental” by Smith’s attorneys and recently criticized by the United Nations. In 1988, Charles Sennett, a Church of Christ minister from Colbert County, Alabama, orchestrated the murder of his wife, Elizabeth …