Alabama executes death row inmate with nitrogen gas | Alabama

Alabama has carried out the second execution in the United States using the controversial nitrogen gas method, an experimental human technique that veterinarians in the United States and Europe have deemed unacceptable for killing most animals.

Alan Eugene Miller, 59, was pronounced dead at a prison in southern Alabama at 6:38 p.m. local time.

According to the Associated Press, Miller shook and trembled on the stretcher for about two minutes, with his body straining against the restraints at times, followed by about six minutes of panting breaths.

The lethal method involves strapping a respirator mask to the patient's face and introducing pure nitrogen. The resulting lack of oxygen leads to death by suffocation.

Miller's last words were, “I didn't do anything to be in here” and “I didn't do anything to be on death row.” accordingly Reporters who witnessed his death. His voice was temporarily muffled by the mask that covered his face from forehead to chin.

Miller's death is the latest in an extraordinary week in the United States, in which five convicted men were executed in five states in six days. On Friday, South Carolina killed Khalil Divine Black Sun Allah in his first execution in 13 years, and on Tuesday, Texas killed Travis Mullis and Missouri killed Marcellus Williams. Also on Thursday, Emmanuel Littlejohn was executed in Oklahoma.

Williams' execution in Missouri sparked widespread outrage across the United States and beyond after local prosecutors, the victim's family and several trial jurors unsuccessfully tried to stop the execution. There was no forensic evidence linking Williams to the crime, and the current St. Louis County district attorney concluded that the prisoner was actually innocent.

Alabama on Thursday continued with Miller's execution for the 1999 shootings that killed three of his co-workers – Lee Holdbrooks, Christopher Scott Yancy and Terry Jarvis – despite grave concerns about the new nitrogen method.

“Tonight, justice was finally served for these three victims,” Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey said in a statement. “His actions were not insane, but pure evil. Three families were forever changed by his heinous crimes, and I pray they can find comfort all these years later.”

The first execution using nitrogen was also carried out in Alabama in January.

An eyewitness for the Associated Press described the death at the time of Kenneth Smith, 58. “Smith began shaking and writhing violently, in violent convulsions and seizure-like movements…The force of his movements caused the stretcher to visibly move at least once. Smith's arms strained against the straps holding him to the stretcher. He lifted his head off the stretcher and then fell back.”

Alabama described Smith's death as a “textbook” execution.

Smith and Miller share a common difference besides the experimental killing method they use. Both men had the extraordinarily unusual experience of surviving an attempted execution by lethal injection.

In Smith's case, he was tied to the stretcher for four hours in November 2022, hung upside down for some time, his body riddled with needle holes, in a vain attempt to place an IV through which the deadly drugs could be injected.

Miller experienced a similarly traumatic, botched execution two months before Smith. Like Smith, he was tied to a gurney in Alabama's death chamber at Holman Prison and subjected to a procedure that his lawyers claimed amounted to physical and mental torture.

He was repeatedly punctured with needles and left hanging vertically on the stretcher in severe pain before the execution was aborted. Lawyers argued that Alabama should have been barred from further attempts to kill Miller if he had suffered such cruel and unusual punishment, but state authorities disagreed – they immediately began proceedings to execute him with nitrogen.

Maya Foa, co-executive director of the human rights group Reprieve, said Alabama is typical of the increasingly extreme lengths to which states that impose the death penalty are willing. “You tell yourself that it's okay to execute people twice, no matter how much the person suffered the first time. And that a man thrashing around on a stretcher for ten minutes, gasping for air as he desperately fights for his life, is a textbook nitrogen gas execution.”

The Associated Press contributed reporting