For Immediate Release: January 26, 2024
Contact: Moira Greaney at moira@catholicsmobilizing.org
Website: catholicsmobilizing.org Twitter: @CMNEndtheDP
Late in the evening on January 25, Alabama executed Kenneth “Kenny” Eugene Smith by nitrogen hypoxia. It was the first known execution using this method, which requires an individual to breathe pure nitrogen gas through a mask causing suffocation.
Catholic Mobilizing Network’s Executive Director Krisanne Vaillancourt Murphy offered the following statement in response to Kenny Smith’s execution:
"Tonight we mourn the deaths of two people whose lives were unfairly taken from them in an act of violence: Elizabeth Sennett and Kenny Smith.
How many more executions will it take until we see that returning death for death is not justice — it’s vengeance.
Tonight’s experimental execution of Kenny Smith by nitrogen hypoxia did nothing to make our communities safer. It proved only one thing: Alabama was hellbent on killing Kenny Smith.
People from all over the globe are watching Alabama tonight. Regretfully, what they saw was an act of barbarism.
Our prayers and actions should be working toward embracing justice solutions that aren’t rooted in revenge. The pursuit of death in the name of justice must end."
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Catholic Mobilizing Network is a national organization that mobilizes Catholics and all people of goodwill to value life over death, to end the use of the death penalty, to transform the U.S. criminal legal system from punitive to restorative, and to build capacity in U.S. society to engage in restorative practices.
