Kenneth Eugene Smith biography: 13 things about Alabama native convicted of Elizabeth Sennett’s murder

Kenneth Eugene Smith is an American man born in Alabama, United States. On March 18, 1988, he and John Forrest Parker fatally stabbed Charles Sennett Sr.‘s wife Elizabeth Dorlene Sennett, 45, at her residence in Colbert County, Alabama.

Smith and Parker were each paid $1,000 by Billy Gray Williams, who was paid by Charles, a preacher. Williams was one of Charles’ tenants.

Charles and Elizabeth have two sons together. On March 25, 1988, he took his own life after admitting to his sons that he had an affair and he paid people to have Elizabeth killed.

On June 10, 2010, Parker was executed via lethal injection. In November 2020, Williams died in prison.

Smith is 5’10” tall and he weighs around 207 pounds. Here are 13 more things about him:

1. On April 7, 1988, he was indicted for the capital murder of Elizabeth.
2. In November 1989, he was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death.
3. In 1992, his conviction and death sentence were overturned in because the state of Alabama opted to exclude several potential jurors based on their race.
4. On April 29, 1996, he was convicted of capital murder after being tried again in Jefferson County, Alabama for Elizabeth’s murder. The jury recommended he be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
5. In November 2020, he was supposed to be executed but the Alabama Department of Corrections called it off because of complications.
6. In September 2022, the Alabama Supreme Court scheduled his execution by lethal injection for November 17, 2022.
7. On November 17, 2022, the ADOC tried and failed to execute him, which was the third consecutive botched execution by the state of Alabama.
8. On May 12, 2023, he filed a second petition for relief from death sentence, seeking injunctive relief to prohibit the ADOC from making a second attempt to execute him.
9. On July 4, 2023, he turned 58. On August 11, 2023, the petition he filed on May 12, 2023 was dismissed.
10. On December 15, 2023, the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals denied his petition for rehearing.
11. On January 10, 2024, a federal judge ruled that Alabama could proceed with his execution via nitrogen gas. On January 12, 2024, the Supreme Court of Alabama denied his petition for a writ of certiorari.
12. On January 24, 2024, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear his appeal and denied his request to stay his execution.
13. At 8:25 p.m. on January 25, 2024, he became the first person in the world ever to be executed via nitrogen hypoxia.