NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — There is currently no timeline for when the next inmate on death row will be executed in Tennessee, while in Alabama, an inmate became the first in U.S. history to be put to death by nitrogen hypoxia Thursday.
Kenneth Smith was put on death row for being paid $1,000 to kill a pastor’s wife, Elizabeth Sennett, in 1988.
The Alabama Department of Corrections Commissioner John Hamm told reporters Thursday evening the nitrogen was running for around 15 minutes before Smith was pronounced dead. The Alabama Attorney General called the execution “a moment in history.”
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“Alabama has done it, and now so can you, and we stand ready to assist you in implementing this method in your states,” Attorney General Steve Marshall said.
In Tennessee, there are currently 45 inmates on death row, but none of them are scheduled to be executed after Gov. Bill Lee put a hold on all executions in April 2022 following a report that found the Tennessee Department of Correction wasn’t testing the lethal injection drugs as required by its own protocol. Lee told TDOC officials the department must create a new protocol before another execution takes place in Tennessee.