This text is by Jeff Hood, a clergyman who accompanied Kenneth Smith until his death. The text may be published with his kind permission.
I witnessed a man being executed with nitrogen gas in Alabama. It was horrific and cruel.
When I took off my glasses, I sobbed. I had never felt so far from God. I prayed that God would forgive me. I did the best I could.
Jeff Hood | Opinion piece
No one in the world was closer to the first and only execution by nitrogen hypoxia than I was. As spiritual advisor to Kenneth Smith, I witnessed every moment of horror before, during and after the curtain closed.
I want to make something clear: anyone who claims that this was anything other than torture is not only mistaken, he is a dangerous liar.
The execution of Kenny Smith was a gruesome sight.
Does that sound human?
As the nitrogen gas began to flow, Kenny's expression grew more intense with each passing second. The colors began to change. The veins began to tense. Every muscle in his body began to tense.
We had talked about what he wanted to do for weeks before this moment. He never said he would hold his breath.
When things started taking much longer than the seconds we had been told they would take, I began to wonder why.
His chest was moving up and down faster and faster. He was clearly trying to breathe. "Shouldn't he be unconscious by now?" He clearly wasn't.
He looked like his head was about to fall off. I leaned back. There was nowhere I could fall. There was only the nightmare in front of me.
As Kenny's reactions became more and more violent, the guards' facial expressions also changed dramatically.
I couldn't believe my eyes. The stretcher wasn't supposed to move. And yet it was moving. Kenny started to move back and forth. The restraints weren't enough to keep him still. As the seconds went on longer than we were told, I started to wonder why.
Kenny shook the entire gurney. I had never seen anything so violent. Kenny's muscles were no longer tense, but looked like they were about to explode. Veins stretched out like spider webs in all directions. It looked like an army of ants was crawling through every inch of Kenny. Nothing in his body was still anymore. Everything was everywhere at once, over and over again.
His face. My God... his face.
Kenny's face repeatedly twitched toward the front of the mask. I kept wondering if his bulging eyeballs were about to burst through.
Saliva, mucus, and other substances shot from his mouth. The concoction of bodily fluids dripped down the inside of the mask. Back and forth... back and forth... back and forth, Kenny continued to cough.
The Alabama officials had told us that the gas would kill Kenny in seconds, but the execution had been going on for minutes. Kenny was still very much conscious. I could see the horror in his eyes. I will never forget it.
God seemed far away in those moments.
I took off my glasses and sobbed. I had never felt so far from God. I prayed that God would forgive me. I did the best I could.
We all have choices to make. I hope no one ever has to face the options I had again. They would have killed him either way, with or without me, but I was still part of that horrific process. My life was never a choice. I just had to be there for Kenny.
I prayed over and over the words of the Psalmist, “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death…” But death was much more than just a shadow at this point.
The convulsions gave way to shallow breathing. Kenny was barely conscious. Each breath brought more death. It wasn't just the death of a human being - it was the death of any notion that the execution of a human being could be in any way humane.
We were told we were going to witness something peaceful. The harrowing spectacle was anything but.
In recent days, politicians have felt emboldened to call for nitrogen hypoxia executions in their own states. Such efforts are mindless madness.
It's insane because the people who support these efforts have no idea what they're talking about. It's insane because they're advocating that people should be legally suffocated to death.
These people did not see what I did. These insane explosions of moral suicide have a tendency to destroy not only lives but even our souls. I felt it.
Rev. Dr. Jeff Hood
(Rev. Jeff Hood is a spiritual advisor to death row inmates in the United States.)
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