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Alabama has carried out the first execution by asphyxiation with nitrogen gas. Kenneth Eugene Smith was executed after a previous attempt involving lethal injection failed.
In this episode from January 2023, we heard about that botched execution and how states have been wrestling with how to carry out the ultimate penalty.
Guests
Elizabeth Bruenig, staff writer at the Atlantic. (@ebruenig)
Robert Blecker, professor emeritus at New York Law School. Author of The Death of Punishment: Searching for Justice Among the Worst of the Worst. (@RobertBlecker)
Also Featured
Dee Smith, wife of Kenneth Eugene Smith, whose execution was called off in Alabama.
Transcript: Highlights from the show’s open
DEE SMITH: We said our goodbyes and, you know, hugged and we hoped it wasn’t our last, but we expected it to be our last.
MEGHNA CHAKRABARTI: Dee Smith is married to Kenneth Eugene Smith, a prisoner in Alabama. Kenneth Eugene Smith was found guilty of carrying out a murder for hire in 1988. He has been on death row for the last 30-plus years. The 57-year-old was scheduled to be executed by lethal injection at the William C. Holman Correctional Facility at 6 p.m. on November 17th, 2022. For Dee, it was the longest and hardest day of her life.
SMITH: I was really trying not to think about losing him, you know, because I knew the hardest part was yet to come. I knew at that point, you know, like once I got to the point of actually being there to witness, it was, you know, I didn’t know how I was going to hold it together. I mean, he was my best friend.
CHAKRABARTI: Dee visited Smith for hours that day at the prison. They shared his last meal together, fish and chips, and even talked on the phone right before he was brought to the execution chamber later that evening. Dee and other family members were due to be picked up by the prison staff and brought to the witness room for the execution. But the call never came. They just waited and waited and…
Read the full article here
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