What happened at the nation’s first nitrogen gas execution: An AP eyewitness account

By KIM CHANDLER
Associated Press

ATMORE, Ala. (AP) — Witnesses watched through a window at an Alabama prison as Kenneth Eugene Smith became the nation’s first person to be put to death using nitrogen gas. Smith shook and convulsed while strapped to the gurney. His arms pulled against the restraining straps. The shaking went on for at least two minutes. Smith began to take a series of deep gasping breaths, and then his breathing became no longer visible. He was pronounced dead at 8:25 p.m. Critics who had worried the new execution method would be cruel and experimental say Smith’s final moments prove they were right. Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall characterized it as a “textbook” execution, however. Smith was convicted of the 1988 killing of Elizabeth Sennett.