The grisly history of America's death row: Agonising three-hour death from botched lethal injection, notorious last meals and the real-life execution that has eerie parallels to Green Mile

The grisly history of America's death row: Agonising three-hour death from botched lethal injection, notorious last meals and the real-life execution that has eerie parallels to Green Mile

The impending execution of killer Kenneth Eugene Smith with untested nitrogen has brought America's controversial capital punishment system back into sharp focus.

Smith will be gassed to death with nitrogen hypoxia tomorrow at 6pm in Atmore, Alabama, after the US Supreme Court denied his appeal.

It will be the first execution of its kind in the US and first known nitrogen execution in the world. 

But Smith's demise will be just the latest in a long line of officially sanctioned killings in the United States.

The 2000 hit film adaptation of Stephen King's novel the Green Mile, which featured a horrifying electric chair execution scene, was loosely based on the real case of 14-year-old George Stinney, who was electrocuted for the murders of two girls in 1944.

In 1928, housewife Ruth Snyder was executed by the same method after murdering her husband with her lover. Incredibly, a photographer took a secret picture of the moment of her death using a camera strapped to his ankle.  

In August 2022, convicted killer Joe Nathan James endured the longest execution in history, when he was slowly put to death over an agonizing three-hour ordeal

In October the previous year, death row killer John Marion Grant yelled 'let's go!' before vomiting and convulsing 'two dozen times' as an Oklahoma execution team delivered a controversial three-drug lethal injection.

In 2014, again in Oklahoma, 38-year-old murderer Clayton Lockett spent 40 minutes writhing in agony after also being given a three-drug injection. 

Other killers who have been put to death in the US have uttered some bizarre final words.

In 2012, Robert Charles Towery, who had been convicted of the murder of a man who lent him money, said, 'I love my family. Potato, potato, potato', before he was put to death in Arizona, Texas.

The strange utterance was actually a secret message to his nephew. Sources said he was trying to convey the sound a Harley-Davidson motorbike makes when idling. 

His lawyer claimed it was the murderer's way of saying 'everything was ok'.

In 1987, double murderer Jimmy Glass said 'I'd rather be fishing' moments before he was executed in the electric chair

He had escaped from prison in Louisiana with fellow inmate Jimmy Wingo in 1982 and went on to shoot dead a husband and wife after breaking into their home.

In 1928, George Appel, who had been convicted of the murder of a police officer in Brooklyn, New York, said, 'well gentlemen, you are about to see a baked Appel' as he was being strapped to the electric chair.

Some death row inmates have had some particularly notable final meals.

Serial killer John Wayne Gacey gorged on 12 fried shrimp, a bucket of KFC, french fries and a pound of strawberries before he was executed in Illinois in 1994 for the murders of at least 33 young men and boys.

Timothy McVeigh, the American terrorist behind the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, enjoyed two pints of mint chocolate chip ice cream before he was given the lethal injection at the age of 33. 

Black teenager George Stinney's execution was hugely controversial. He was the youngest American to be both sentenced to death and executed in the 20th century.

His conviction was vacated in 2014 - 70 years after he was put to death - after a court ruled he had not received a fair trial. 

Stinney is believed to have been the archetype for the Green Mile's central character, John Coffey. 

Like the young boy, Coffey was convicted by an all-white jury and turned out to be innocent of his alleged crimes

Kenneth Eugene Smith, 58, is one of two men convicted in the murder-for-hire slaying of a preacher´s wife in 1988 that rocked a small north Alabama community.

Prosecutors said he and the other man were each paid $1,000 to kill Elizabeth Sennett on behalf of her husband, who was deeply in debt and wanted to collect on insurance.

Sennett, 45, was found dead March 18, 1988, in her home in Colbert County with eight stab wounds in the chest and one on each side of her neck, according to the coroner.

Her husband, Charles Sennett Sr., killed himself when the investigation focused on him as a suspect, according to court documents.

Smith´s initial 1989 conviction was overturned on appeal, but he was retried and convicted again in 1996.

The jury recommended a life sentence by a vote of 11-1, but a judge overrode that and sentenced him to death. Alabama no longer lets judges override jury decisions in death penalty cases.

John Forrest Parker, the other man convicted in the slaying, was executed in 2010.

Smith was due to be executed last year by lethal injection but nurses struggled to find a clear vein in time before the execution warrant expired.

A panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected Smith´s request for an injunction to stop his scheduled execution by nitrogen hypoxia Thursday.

Smith's lawyers have argued that the state is trying to make him the test subject for an untried execution method and are expected to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The method involves putting a respirator-type face mask over the nose and mouth to replace breathable air with nitrogen, causing death from lack of oxygen. 

It appears that Supreme Court judges will likely hear and rule on whether Alabama can use the new method of execution before Smith is set to be put to death.