A spiritual adviser to Kenneth Smith, the murderer who became the first death row inmate in the world to be executed with nitrogen gas Thursday night, broke down in tears describing the “horror show” execution in Alabama.
Rev. Jeff Hood attended the highly contentious execution of 58-year-old Smith, which lasted around 22 minutes from beginning to end, according to the Associated Press. The wire service reported that Smith shook and writhed on the gurney for at least two minutes as the gas flowed, sometimes attempting to pull on his restraints.
Hood became emotional as he described the execution as “the most horrible thing I think I’ve ever seen” in a CNN interview, a video of which was shared online by nonprofit The Woods Foundation. “We prayed together, we were able to spend time together briefly,” Hood said. He added that he told Smith he loved him and made the sign of the cross “letting him know that he’s not alone.”
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Hood then paused and appeared to become emotional before describing what happened when a gas was fitted to Smith’s face and the execution began. “When they turned the nitrogen on, he began to convulse,” Hood said. “He popped up on the gurney over and over and over again. He shook the whole gurney.”
Audible gasps could be heard coming from the witness areas, Hood said. “I could see the corrections officers that were in there—they were… I think they were very surprised that this didn’t go smoother,” he added. One of the state officials in the room, Hood claimed, was “so nervous she was tap dancing—I could hear her feet tapping over and over again because they wanted it to be over.”
He also claimed that Smith kept breathing for “what could possibly have been around nine minutes, ten minutes.” “An unbelievable evil was unleashed tonight in Alabama,” Hood added. He alleged that Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey, along with state Attorney General Steve Marshall and even the corrections officers involved in the execution, were “responsible for the horror show that just happened in there.”
“I have never, ever seen anything like that,” Hood said. “That was torture.”
Speaking before the execution, Hood told the AP that in his final hours, Smith was “terrified at the torture that could come.” “But he’s also at peace,” Hood added at the time. “One of the things he told me is he is finally getting out.”
Smith had previously survived a 2022 execution attempt when authorities couldn’t connect an IV line for a lethal injection. An eleventh-hour legal fight to stop his execution was ended Thursday night by the U.S. Supreme Court, which allowed it to proceed despite objections from Smith’s lawyers that their client was being used as a “‘guinea pig’ to test a method of execution never attempted before.”
Smith was sentenced to die over the 1988 killing of Elizabeth Sennett, a preacher’s wife, in a murder-for-hire plot. “After more than 30 years and attempt after attempt to game the system, Mr. Smith has answered for his horrendous crimes,” Gov. Ivey said in a statement. “I pray that Elizabeth Sennett’s family can receive closure after all these years dealing with that great loss.”
