https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13009853/kenneth-eugene-smith-preacher-advisor-sobs-murderers-executed-death-row.htmlHow a hipster preacher served as Kenneth Eugene Smith's 'spiritual advisor' who marches with a giant crucifix and SOBS when murderers are executed on Death Row
By TOM COTTERILL
PUBLISHED: 08:16, 27 January 2024 | UPDATED: 09:07, 27 January 2024
He's the bespectacled hipster preacher who serves as the 'spiritual advisor' to twisted Death Row killers before they're executed. Sporting a bushy beard, oval glasses and sometimes carrying a huge wooden cross, Reverend Dr Jeff Hood is often the last friendly face some of the most heinous criminals in America get to see before their lives are snuffed out. Among those aided by the sandal-wearing religious man was Kenneth Eugene Smith, who was put to death on Thursday during a nightmarish, botched execution at a correctional facility in Alabama. The 58-year-old murderer became the first person in the world to be executed with nitrogen gas. But what was meant to be a quick death turned into a shocking 22-minute ordeal as he slowly suffocated. Liberal Rev Dr Hood who supports gay and trans rights and once staged a Black Lives Matters rally which ended in five police officers in Dallas being shot and killed in 2016 was in the room as Smith thrashed on the gurney while the gas took hold. The moment was the 'worst thing' the spiritual guider said he had ever seen. After praying with the killer and telling him that he 'loved him and he wasn't alone', Hood broke down as he recounted the 'horror show' of Smith's final moments. '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,' he said. 'I could see the corrections officers, I think they were very surprised that this didn't go smoothly - one of the state officials in the room was so nervous she was tap dancing,' he continued.
'(Smith) kept breathing for what could possibly be up to nine minutes, 10 minutes, unbelievable evil was unleashed tonight in Alabama.'
Hood's claims of Smith's execution being a 'horror show' directly oppose the narrative put out by Alabama officials, who praised it as a step forward for safe death row justice as an 'effective and humane method of execution.'
'When I agreed to be Kenny Smith’s spiritual advisor, I did so because I didn’t want him to be alone in the darkest hour of his life,' he added.
It's not the first time married father-of-five Rev Dr Hood has courted controversy. In 2016. the pastor was caught up in the mayhem of a gun battle during a Black Lives Matter protest he helped stage in Dallas, Texas. What started off as a peaceful demonstration ended in carnage, with five police officers being shot and killed, with seven other people injured. Rev Dr Hood, a staunch anti-police-brutality activist had held a gathering earlier in the evening to protest the police shooting of Alton Sterling in Louisiana and Philando Castile in Minnesota. As gunfire erupted on the streets of Dallas, the white Baptist pastor shepherded people to safety a large, wooden cross as a beacon. Speaking after the bloodshed, Hood said: 'Never in our wildest dreams would we have imagined that five police officers would be dead this morning.'
But critics were quick to slam the reverend, accusing him of giving a very different message shortly before the shooting started, potentially inflaming racial tensions. Filmed speaking on a megaphone, Rev Dr Hood yelled: 'God damn white America.
'White America is 'f***ing lie. I'm sick of the bodies and black and brown people being slaughtered in our streets.'
And in the media firestorm that followed, Rev Dr Hood found himself facing death threats online. 'You should feel so proud. Because of you and your rally five people are dead. And now you’re on TV for your 5 minutes of fame. Crawl back in your hole scumbag,' wrote one person.
Another added: 'I can only hope and pray that you are killed soon...'
While a third said: 'Just wait till you get dragged through the street. Racist loser.'
In the aftermath that followed, the pastor was forced to shelter from the world, fearing he would be gunned down, with police patrolling his home. Hood grew up Georgia part of America's Bible Belt famed for its staunch religious views in a Christian fundamentalist family. But he became a racial-justice advocate, describing his home state as the 'cradle of the civil rights movement'.
As a child of six or seven, he remembers his teacher in first grade assigning him the task of reciting the 'I Have Dream Speech' by famed civil rights activist, Dr Martin Luther King Jr. 'From very early on I realized these struggles were complicated, but the complication didn’t keep me from going in my desire to be a part of the change,' he told GQ.
Not afraid of speaking his mind, Hood fiercely opposes the death penalty and fights for LGBT rights. In a biography online, he proudly boasts of having been arrested three times and having written more than 70 books. 'With three arrests, various assaults endured and thousands of miles marched, Dr. Hood is not afraid to step into the shoes of Jesus and give his body for justice,' the biography reads.
While in the death chamber with Smith, Rev Dr Hood took the time to pray with the convicted killer, touching Smith's feet with a bible before the gas was administered. Smith was convicted in the 1988 murder-for-hire killing of Elizabeth Sennett. Prosecutors said he was one of two men who were each paid $1,000 to kill Ms Sennett on behalf of her pastor husband, who was deeply in debt and wanted to collect on insurance. She was found with eight stab wounds to the chest and one in each side of her neck. In a final statement, Smith said: 'Tonight Alabama causes humanity to take a step backwards I'm leaving with love, peace and light.'
He made the 'I love you sign' toward his wife and other family members who were witnesses. 'Thank you for supporting me. Love, love all of you,' Smith said.
Smith started violently shaking, writhing, and thrashing up and down on the gurney for two whole minutes after the nitrogen gas started filling up his mask. This was followed by five to seven minutes of heavy breathing and slight gasping. In total, Smith, 58, was visibly conscious and struggling in apparent pain for nearly 10 minutes before his breathing seemed to slowly stop at 8.08pm. The viewing curtains closed at 8.15pm and he was pronounced dead at 8.25pm. Prior to the fiasco, Rev Dr Hood hit out at the State of Alabama for refusing to 'share even the simplest of evidence of safety precautions that they have in place for the first nitrogen hypoxia execution'.
In a blistering personal blog ahead of the botched execution of the Death Row inmate, Rev Dr Hood accused state officials of 'secrecy' over the new killing method. 'We have put out several safety demands…to which the State of Alabama has not responded,' Rev Dr Hood wrote.
'They are not willing to engage the simplest safety measures. The State of Alabama has not responded to the truth that experts have shared over and over. I guess this should make sense… since they are so comfortable taking the life of a human being in this manner…suffocation. If they are prepared to kill someone in such a way…what would it mean to kill someone else? It seems that it would mean very little. The tyranny of uncertainty that the State of Alabama has created has given tremendous stress to people that I deeply love. Once again, they should be ashamed. But of course, they won’t be. Those who are this comfortable being murderers have no shame.'
