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A murderer was put to death in Alabama overnight with a previously unused and untested method, in what witnesses described as a horrifying 22-minute ordeal.

Kenneth Eugene Smith, 58, was paid $1,000 to kill an Alabama woman, 45-year-old Elizabeth Sennett, more than 30 years ago and was sentenced to death for the crime. He has been on death row ever since.

The state had previously attempted to execute Smith in 2022, but the lethal injection was called off at the last minute because authorities couldn't connect an IV line.

On Thursday night, the state tried again to put him to death, this time successfully using 'nitrogen hypoxia' - suffocation by administering gas through a mask.

It marked the first time a new execution method was used in the US since 1982, when lethal injection was introduced and later became the most common method. 

Alabama had predicted the nitrogen gas would cause unconsciousness within seconds and death within minutes.

However, those who watched the execution at the Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, Alabama have said it was anything but simple.

Witnesses said Smith appeared to shake and convulse at the start, pulled against his restraints, and breathed for up to ten minutes before finally falling unconscious.

While executions are never filmed in the US, it is possible to piece together the events from witnesses testimony given by those who watched the scene unfold in the immediate aftermath of Smith's death.

All told, the execution took about 22 minutes from the time between the opening and closing of the curtains to the viewing room - much longer than expected.

Witnesses sat in wait in a viewing gallery for almost an hour before a curtain drew back at 7.53pm local time (1:53am GMT), revealing Smith, his arms and body strapped to the gurney in cruciform.

A mask, described as being like one worn by firemen, was strapped to his face and hooked up to the source of the nitrogen gas, ready to be deployed.

Marty Roney of the Montgomery Advertiser, who witnessed the execution, said a plastic tube ran out of a hole in the concrete block wall of the execution chamber.

While it was not clear exactly what the room looked like, pictures of Holman's execution chamber from 2002 show a grey, clinical room with two windows - one for prison officials overseeing the execution, and another for the public gallery.

Smith's wife Deanna was watching through the window, along with a select few others. The murderer's spiritual guide, Jeff Hood, touched Smith's feet with a bible.

At 7.55pm, Smith was allowed to speak his final goodbyes before the procedure began. He reportedly smiled when he recognised people in the media gallery.

Speaking through the gas mask strapped to his face, Smith made a heart sign and an 'ok' sign with his left hand to his family before declaring: 'Tonight Alabama causes humanity to take a step backwards... I'm leaving with love, peace and light.

'Thank you for supporting me. Love, love all of you,' Smith added.

Then, at around 7.57pm, a corrections officer checked the seal of Smith's mask, while a prison warden remotely activated the 'nitrogen hypoxia system', delivering a fatal dose of toxic gas into Smith. 

The gas would have filled the inmate's airways, preventing oxygen from getting to the brain, ultimately suffocating him.

In theory, the method involved replacing the air breathed by the inmate with 100% nitrogen. Those who support the method say the process should be painless, pointing to nitrogen's role in suicides or deadly industrial accidents. 

However, witnesses said afterwards that it too much longer for Smith to fall unconscious than Alabama officials had said. He pulled against his restraints, and appeared to shake and convulse, as the gas filled his system.

At one point as the killer tore against his restraints, his wife Deanna, wearing a T-shirt reading 'Never Alone', desperately cried out for him from the witness box. 

Marty Roney wrote in his report that Smith convulsed for four minutes. 'He appeared to be fully conscious when the gas began to flow,' he said.

Between 7.57pm and 8.01pm, 'Smith writhed and convulsed on the gurney,' he wrote.

'He took deep breaths, his body shaking violently with his eyes rolling in the back of his head,' his account continued. 'Smith clenched his fists, his legs shook … He seemed to be gasping for air. The gurney shook several times.'

Hood, who continued to bless him throughout the execution while Smith struggled, was stood 15 feet away and 'made the sign of the cross several times,' Roney said.

As the gurney shook several times during the first four minutes, 'Hood removed his eyeglasses and wiped away tears,' Roney added.

Hood said afterwards that the execution was the 'worst thing' he had ever seen, claiming prison officials gasped in shock as Smith died slower than expected. 

'When they turned the nitrogen on, he began to convulse, he popped up on the gurney over and over again, he shook the whole gurney,' Hood said. 

He said prison officials in the room 'were visibly surprised at how bad this thing went'. He added: 'What we saw was minutes of someone struggling for their life.'

Alabama corrections commissioner John Hamm later said in a press conference that it 'appeared that Smith was holding his breath as long as he could.' 

Roney said at 8.02pm, Smith appeared to lose consciousness, his chest remaining still for 20 seconds, before he took 'several large gasps for air'.

Either saliva or a tear could be seen on the inside of the mask, he wrote, while a female witness for Smith - presumed to be his wife - was heard sobbing. 

At 8.07pm, a corrections officer leaned over Smith and examined him, before stepping back against the wall to allow for the execution continue.

It was at this point that Roney said Smith appeared to take his last breath. 

The curtain was pulled back over the chamber at 8.15pm, before he was officially declared dead 10 minutes later, at 8.25pm local time.

Smith died about 22 minutes after the gas was first administered. 

Hood said he prayed for the murderer and told him that he 'loved him and he wasn't alone', and broke down as he recounted the 'horror show' of Smith's final moments. 

'I could see the

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