A Death Row inmate spent 81 minutes strapped to a gurney “stabbed” and “full of holes” as executioners tried and failed to kill him. Three executioners, dressed in scrubs and face masks to protect them from squirting blood according to witnesses, were eventually forced to abandon the botched execution in 2022 in the US. When they tried again two years later, the convicted killer “thrashed” violently before eventually dying.
It was the latest in a series of botched executions that year, which have now been thrown into the spotlight again after Christa Pike was left in critical condition and receiving life-saving care after a second failed attempt to end her life this week.
Victim beaten and stabbed to death on husband’s orders
Kenneth Smith and another man were first convicted in 1989 of the murder-for-hire of Elizabeth Sennett a year earlier. Mrs Sennett was 45 when she was beaten in her Alabama home with a “fireplace implement” and a piece of piping and stabbed eight times in the chest and twice in the neck. The killers had been hired by her husband, Charles Sennett Sr, a pastor at the Westside Church of Christ, because he was in debt and hoped to claim on insurance payout. He paid them $1,000 each for the horrific murder and killed himself when the murder investigation closed in on him as a suspect.
Smith’s 1989 conviction and death sentence were quashed but he was convicted again in 1996. This time, the jury recommended a sentence of life in prison without parole but the judge overrode this and sentenced him to death.
A rare thing: an inmate who could describe what it’s like to survive execution
Smith’s execution was scheduled for 6pm on November 17, 2022. He had appealed for a stay of execution, which was actually being considered by judges when Smith was taken by prison officers to the death chamber. Judges actually granted the stay of execution but no one got the message to the death chamber, where Smith was already strapped to the gurney.
According to Supreme Court documents, three executioners spent 81 minutes trying to administer an IV into Smith’s body in order to be able to administer the lethal injection, including “repeatedly sticking needles into his arms and hands” and “multiple needle jabs in his neck or collarbone region”. They even flipped the gurney so Smith was upside down, in an inverse crucifixion position, before eventually giving up.
The second execution attempt, in 2024, was the first ever carried out with nitrogen gas. It took around 25 minutes.
Rev. Jeff Hood, Smith’s spiritual adviser who performed last rites, said: “I think that anybody who witnessed this knows we didn’t see someone go unconscious into two or three seconds. What we saw was minutes of someone struggling for his life. We saw minutes of someone heaving back and forth. We saw spit. We saw all sorts of stuff develop from his mask.”
Marty Roney of the Montgomery Advertiser reported that, for four or five minutes, “Smith writhed and convulsed on the gurney. He took deep breaths, his body shaking violently with his eyes rolling in the back of his head. Smith clenched his fists, his legs shook. He seemed to be gasping for air. The gurney shook several times.”
Inmates being ‘repeatedly stabbed with needles’
In the executions of both Kenneth Smith and Christa Pike, officials failed to establish IV lines to administer lethal injections into their bodies. Pike’s lawyer Randy Spivey told reporters he "counted at least seven needles used in her left arm alone, one of which appeared to be bent when it was pulled from her arm after an unsuccessful attempt". He said the attempts to establish a line went on for an hour.
It is the second time in 2026 officials in Tennessee have tried and failed to execute a prisoner for the same reason. In May, the execution of Tony Carruthers was called off after staff were unable to find a vein.
Kenneth Smith was one of four executions in Alabama in 2022, three of which were botched. Two didn’t die and, though the third did die, “circumstances surrounding [his] execution indicate that his execution was botched and that he probably suffered”. Before that, Tennessee had suspended its executions after discovering that its personnel had not followed execution protocol for testing drugs and Oklahoma suspended executions from 2015 until 2022 after serious execution errors.
What did Christa Pike do?
On Jan. 12, 1995, 18-year-old Pike and her boyfriend Tadaryl Shipp lured 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer to woods in Knoxville, Tennessee, where they tortured and bludgeoned her to death, reportedly because Pike thought she wanted her boyfriend.
"When Slemmer tried to flee, Pike sliced her stomach with the box cutter. ... As Slemmer begged for her life, Pike repeatedly kicked her in the face. Pike then cut Slemmer’s throat as she begged for mercy," the Tennessee Attorney General's Office wrote in court documents.
After Slemmer made one final attempt to escape, Pike smashed the back of her head with a rock, they wrote. Shipp carved a pentagram into her chest and Pike later showed off a piece of their victim’s skull to a friend.
What did the murder victims’ families say?
In the case of Kenneth Smith, several of his victim Elizabeth Sennett’s relatives were at the execution and told reporters they had forgiven the killers. “Nothing that happened here today is going to bring mom back,” her son, Mike Sennett, said. “It’s a bittersweet day, we’re not going to be jumping around, hooping and hollering, hooraying and all that, that’s not us. We’re glad this day is over.”
After Smith’s death, Alabama Governor Kay Ivey said: "After more than 30 years and attempt after attempt to game the system, Mr Smith has answered for his horrendous crimes. I pray that Elizabeth Sennett's family can receive closure after all these years dealing with that great loss."
After the second failed attempt to execute Pike, Miss Slemmer's mother May Martinez, who was among those who wanted the execution to take place and who travelled to Tennessee to witness it, told NBC News "it was a mess".
Tennessee Governor Bill Lee has ordered an independent review and said on Thursday the investigation into Pike's botched execution "will be thorough", adding that "it's going to take time".
