Alabama is scheduled to carry out its second execution using nitrogen gas, months after the state put a person to death for the first time using the previously untested method.
Alabama Governor Kay Ivey has set a September 26 execution date for Alan Eugene Miller, who was convicted of killing three men in a 1999 workplace shooting. The governor’s office says the executions will be carried out using nitrogen gas. Miller survived an attempted lethal injection in 2022.
The governor’s action came a week after the Alabama Supreme Court approved the death penalty.
Alabama sets execution date for man convicted of killing delivery driver during attempted robbery
In January, Alabama used nitrogen gas to execute Kenneth Smith. Smith trembled and convulsed in seizure-like movements for several minutes on his stretcher during his execution on January 25th.
Alan Miller is on Alabama’s death row. (Alabama Department of Corrections)
Nitrogen hypoxic executions result in death by forcing prisoners to inhale pure nitrogen, depriving them of the oxygen they need to maintain bodily functions. As the drugs used for lethal injection, the most common execution method in the United States, become increasingly difficult to obtain, Alabama and some other states are exploring new ways to execute inmates. ing.
Mr. Miller has filed a federal lawsuit challenging the method of execution, citing eyewitness accounts of Mr. Smith’s death and arguing that it violates the Constitution’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
“Rather than address these failures, Alabama sought to maintain secrecy and avoid public scrutiny by misrepresenting what happened in this botched execution,” the attorneys said. stated in the lawsuit. His lawyers are expected to ask a federal judge to block any future executions.
Attorney General Steve Marshall called Smith’s execution “textbook” and said the state would seek to carry out more death sentences using nitrogen gas.
State attorneys added that Miller has been on death row since 2000 and that the time has come to carry out his sentence.
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Miller, a delivery truck driver, was convicted of killing Terry Jarvis, Lee Holdbrooks and Scott Yancey in a workplace shooting.
