At 8:25 pm on Thursday evening, US time, 58-year-old Kenneth Smith passed away in the Correctional Facility in Alabama.
His death ended a tragedy that lasted for 35 years and opened a new chapter in the death penalty in the United States.
(Smith, picture from dailymail)
In 1988, pastor Charles owed a huge debt and decided to kill his wife and cheat her insurance.
He hired two men to kill his wife for $1,000 each. One was John and the other was Smith, who was only 22 years old at the time.
Some time later, Charles's wife was found dead at home. The murderer's methods were extremely cruel. There were 8 stab wounds on her chest and one knife on each side of her neck.
The police quickly detected the case, Charles committed suicide in fear of crime, and John and Smith were sentenced to death.
In 2010, John was executed and passed away. As for Smith, he "died" twice...
(Charles and his wife, pictures from dailymail)
In November 2022, Smith accepted intravenous injection of death, but it ended in failure.
The person who executed him couldn't find the veins in his arm, so he could only keep pricking him. After several unsuccessful attempts, the executioner placed him on an inclined bed with his head and feet in an attempt to concentrate the blood on his head and make the veins in his neck more visible.
But even so, the death penalty was still not successfully carried out.
The group struggled for more than four hours, but Smith was still alive, but he suffered great pain and shock, and his body was soaked with sweat and urine...
(Execution bed, picture from dailymail)
Found that intravenous injection could not be done After killing Smith, the controversial "nitrogen death penalty" became the answer.
The so-called nitrogen death penalty refers to making prisoners inhale 100% pure nitrogen, causing them to suffocate due to lack of oxygen.
According to the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board, for humans, after breathing pure nitrogen or other similar inert gases only once or twice, the person will lose consciousness and cannot feel any pain, which is very suitable for the death penalty. means.
(Schematic diagram of nitrogen death penalty, picture from dailymail)
Compared with "painless", more importantly, American prisons need to use Smith's death to test the possibility of nitrogen death penalty instead of lethal injection.
Because in recent years, the United States has run out of drugs...
In 2018, the director of the Oklahoma Department of Corrections admitted that it has been difficult to find legal lethal injection drugs in the United States.
Since Pfizer stopped producing lethal injection drugs, American prisons have had to turn to various personal black workshops or even "smuggle" them from the black market in India if they want to obtain these drugs.
(Related reports, pictures from dailymail)
Therefore, American prisons urgently need to find a new and humane method of death penalty, which is nitrogen death penalty.
After discussion, the U.S. Supreme Court approved the nitrogen death penalty with a 6-3 vote, and Smith became the first person in the world to be executed by this method.
After the announcement that Smith would be executed by nitrogen gas, it immediately attracted protests from many human rights organizations. They said the nitrogen execution would only make Smith "look painless" and no one would actually know how much pain Smith was in:
"Alabama has already tortured Mr. Smith once!
They stabbed him with needles several times For hours, now they treat him as a guinea pig for testing dangerous plans! This is inhumane torture!”
(Opposing human rights organization, picture from dailymail)
However, their opposition did not affect the execution of the death penalty.
On Thursday, the day of his execution, Smith had no appetite and refused all the food offered to him by the prison.
After talking to his wife, he was taken to the execution room.
Before the execution, he once again requested to cancel the execution, because he was worried that the execution would cause him too much pain or cause vomiting, but his request was not accepted.
In the end, he was put on a sealed mask, which would spray out 100% pure nitrogen, suffocating him to death...
(schematic diagram)
Unexpectedly, the execution process was as Smith expected, and he did not immediately After losing consciousness, struggled on the hospital bed for three or four minutes, and then vomited into the mask. He looked very painful.
He said his last words through the mask:
"Tonight, Alabama has taken a step back for human civilization...I will leave with love, peace and light."
Then he struggled to walk towards the onlookers' home. People made "I love you" gestures and added: "Thank you for supporting me, love you all."
At 8:25 pm local time, 22 minutes after the nitrogen execution, Smith was officially pronounced dead... …
(The correctional facility where Smith died, picture from dailymail)
Those who witnessed Smith’s death that day, in addition to his wife and son, were also the victim’s two sons.
They proposed to watch the execution to ensure that this 36-year-old murder case is completely over...
"We just hope that this can end, and I believe his family is too. It has been 35 years..."
( The son of the deceased has now turned white. Picture from dailymail)
Relevant personnel speculated that perhaps the mask was not completely sealed, causing a small amount of air to enter, which caused Smith's pain.
This may indicate that nitrogen death technology has shortcomings, but netizens do not feel it is a pity:
Smith’s pastor said that he really struggled before his death and only ate a few bites of steak and hash browns in his last meal. And eggs...
He can choose whether to eat his last meal, but the victim cannot!
(picture from dailymail)
I have no problem with nitrogen executions, but why do we spend so much time and money keeping people on death row for so long? It was executed immediately the next morning after the conviction, and that was the end of it.
(picture from dailymail)
I will never take pleasure in executing another person!
To be honest, I wish we lived in a world where there would never be the death penalty, but every time I think about how these poor sons have spent the 35 years since their mother was brutally murdered, I can't help but think about the consequences for such a crime. Say, death is just.
This killer took away 35 years of happy memories from this family!
(picture from dailymail)
did a good job, but it was 27 years late.
(from conviction in 1996 to present)
(picture from dailymail)
My heart goes out only to the families of the victims.
(picture from dailymail) Is
struggling to die? Like he did to his victims?
(picture from dailymail)
As netizens said, not all suffering is deserved, but when people make mistakes, they should pay a sufficient price.
Maybe Smith's death was really painful, but at least this can warn the world not to commit similar crimes again...
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