An Alabama man convicted of killing three people in separate workplace shootings was executed Thursday using nitrogen gas, the first time the method has been used in the country. This is the second time.
Alan Eugene Miller, 59, was pronounced dead at a prison in southern Alabama at 6:38 p.m. local time. He trembled and trembled on the stretcher for about two minutes, occasionally pulling himself into his restraints. This was followed by approximately 6 minutes of periodic gasping for breath.
“I didn't do anything to be here,” Miller said in his final words.
Miller was convicted of murdering three people, Lee Holdbrooks, Christopher Scott Yancey, and Terry Jarvis, believing they were gossiping about him.
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Officials take murder suspect Alan Eugene Miller from the Pelham City Jail, Alabama, on August 5, 1999. Miller was executed Thursday using nitrogen gas for the 1999 murders of three of his co-workers. (AP Photo/Dave Martin)
The state had attempted to execute him by lethal injection in 2022, but Miller chose to die by nitrogen gas.
Miller was a delivery truck driver for Ferguson Enterprises when he killed three men in the Birmingham suburb of Pelham on August 5, 1999.
The man entered the business and shot and killed Holdbrooks, 32, and Yancey, 28, before driving five miles away to Post Airgas, where he had previously worked, and killing Jarvis, 39. was murdered.
“You're spreading rumors about me,” Miller said before opening fire, witnesses said.
“Tonight, justice was finally served for these three victims by the method of execution chosen by the inmate,” Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey said in a statement. “His actions were beyond insanity. , it was pure evil.” Three families have been forever changed by his heinous crimes, and we pray that they can find solace years later. ”
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Lethal injection room in Alabama. Taken Oct. 7, 2002 at Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, Alabama (AP Photo/Dave Martin, File) (AP)
The jury convicted Miller after just 20 minutes of deliberation.
Efforts were called to execute him in 2022 after authorities were unable to find a vein to connect him to an IV. Miller initially challenged the nitrogen gas protocol, but dropped the lawsuit after reaching an undisclosed settlement with the state.
The method involves placing a gas mask over an inmate's face and replacing breathable air with pure nitrogen gas, causing death from oxygen deprivation.
Louisiana, Mississippi and Oklahoma also use nitrogen gas for executions, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
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Alabama used this method for the first and only time earlier this year to execute Kenneth Smith. At the time, United Nations experts condemned Smith's execution, saying it “constitutes torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
