The US State of Alabama has carried out the first known execution of a death row inmate by suffocation with nitrogen gas. Kenneth Smith, a convicted murderer, was put to death after the Supreme Court again denied a last-minute appeal. The method had never been tried before, and Smith's lawyers had argued that it amounted to cruel and unusual punishment. The Commissioner of Alabama's Department of Corrections, John Ham, gave details of the execution. At a news conference.

At 7:53 Central Time tonight, State of Alabama started carrying out the execution of Kenneth Eugene Smith by nitrogenpoxia at the William C. Holman Correction Facility in Atmore. Smith was executed for the 1988 capital murder of Elizabeth Dorlene Senate in Colbert County. Please confer with the media witnesses for Smith's last words. Smith was pronounced deceased by a physician at 08:25 PM Central Standard Time.

And that was the Commissioner of Alabama's Department of Corrections, John Ham speaking earlier. Well, after the execution, a number of witnesses addressed the media and described what had happened.

Once the execution began within a couple of minutes, Kenny began to violently push against the straps. His head began to move back and forth violently. This was the fifth execution that I've witnessed in Alabama, and I have never seen such a violent reaction to an execution.

Well, Charles Sennet, whose mother, Elizabeth, was murdered by Kenneth Smith, also gave his reaction to the execution.

Nothing had I'm here today is going to bring mom back. Nothing. It's a bitter sweet day. We're not going to be jumping around, hooping and hollering hooray and all that. That's not us. But we're glad this day is over.

Well, let's discuss this further. I'm joined now by our North America correspondent, David Willis, who's speaking to us today from Washington. Hello there to you, David. First off, what reaction has there been to this execution in the United States?

Well, depending on who you listen to, Laquesa, there are those on the Alabama stateside who are saying that this was carried out in accordance with the plans that have been in place for some while. Whilst, as you just heard there, there are others who are saying that this was quite a long and tortuous death for this man, Kenneth Smith. Now, we heard from the Alabama State Governor, K. Ivy, who said that after more than 30 years, an attempt after attempt who, as she put it, game the system on the part of Kenneth Smith. He had answered, as she put it, for his horrendous crimes. And her statement concluded, Laquessa, by saying, I pray that Elizabeth Senate's family, can receive closure after all these years dealing with what she called in the statement, that great loss. But this is, of course, a highly controversial means of execution. Kenneth Smith had dodged a previous attempt to execute him more than a year ago after officials in Alabama failed to find a vein through which to administer a lethal injection. There had been various appeals lodged over the planned execution tonight with the US Supreme Court, the highest court in the land.

They were all rejected. And not long after the word came down that those appeals had been rejected, came the news that Kenneth Smith had been put to death at 08:25 PM this evening, local time in Alabama.

David, how is it that nitrogen was used for this execution?

Well, what this procedure entails is a pumping nitrogen gas into a mask which covers the face, and the is there, the prisoner is therefore made to inhale this nitrogen gas. And basically, they are deprived, the body is deprived of oxygen. But we heard, didn't we, from some of the eyewitnesses to tonight's execution, who told of Mr. Smith twisting and turning on the girney, gasping for breath, and spending several minutes alive before this lethal dose of nitrogen gas had overpowered him. There will be a lot of questions, obviously, of how successful or otherwise, if one could put it that way, this method turned out to be. Currently, of course, all we have is the word of those small number of people who were admitted into the execution chamber in Alabama tonight, Laquesa, to witness what happened.