Alabama carried out the second execution in the United States using the controversial nitrogen gas method. The method, which uses nitrogen gas, is an experimental method for humans that veterinarians in the United States and Europe have deemed unacceptable for euthanizing 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 trembled on the stretcher for about two minutes, occasionally being pulled by the restraints, then continued to gasp for breath for about six minutes.
The lethal method involves being strapped with a respirator mask over the face and injected with pure nitrogen through a pipe. The resulting lack of oxygen causes death by suffocation.
Miller's last words were “I did nothing to be here” and “I did nothing to be on death row.” According to Reporters who witnessed his death. His voice was sometimes muffled by the mask that covered his face from forehead to chin.
Mr. Miller's death was the latest in an unusual week in which five death row inmates were executed in five states in six days in the United States. On Friday, South Carolina killed Khalil Sacred Black Sun Allah in its first execution in 13 years, and on Tuesday, Texas did so. Travis Maris And in Missouri, Marcellus Williams was put to death. Also Thursday, Oklahoma executed Emanuel Littlejohn.
Williams' execution in Missouri sparked widespread outrage in the United States and abroad after local prosecutors, the victim's family and several jurors tried unsuccessfully to stop it. There was no forensic evidence linking Williams to the crime, and St. Louis County's current prosecuting attorney concluded that the prisoner was actually innocent.
Despite deep concerns about the new nitrogen law, Alabama announced Thursday that despite deep concerns about the new nitrogen law, the 1999 mass shooting that killed three of Mr. Miller's co-workers: Lee Holdbrooks, Christopher Scott Yancey and Terry Jarvis. Miller's execution was carried out over the matter.
“Tonight, justice was finally served for these three victims,” Alabama Governor Kay Ivey said in a statement. “His actions were not acts of madness, but pure evil. Three families were forever changed by his heinous crimes, and I hope they can find solace years later. I'm praying.”
The first nitrogen execution took place in January, also in Alabama.
eyewitness of Associated Press Regarding the death of Kenneth Smith (age 58) at the time. “Mr. Smith began to shake violently and struggle, with thrashing convulsions and seizure-like movements…The force of his movements caused the stretcher to visibly move at least once. Smith's arms… , pulled the straps securing him to the stretcher. He lifted his head off the stretcher and then fell back.
The state of Alabama described Smith's death as a “textbook” execution.
Smith and Miller share differences in addition to the experimental killing methods applied to them. Both men had the highly unusual experience of surviving execution by lethal injection.
In November 2022, Smith was strapped to a stretcher for four hours, briefly suspended upside down, and his body riddled with needle holes in a futile attempt to install an IV line to inject the deadly drug. It became. .
Mr. Miller had experienced a similarly traumatic botched execution two months before Mr. Smith. Like Smith, he was strapped to a stretcher in the death chamber of Alabama's Holman Prison, undergoing what his lawyers claim is physical and psychological torture.
He suffered repeated needle marks and was left hanging vertically on a stretcher in severe pain until the execution was halted. Lawyers argued that if Mr. Miller received such a cruel and unusual punishment, Alabama should be disqualified from attempting to kill him in the future, and state officials agreed. Instead, they immediately began the process of executing Mr. Miller using nitrogen.
Maya Fore, co-executive director of the human rights group Ripley Live, said Alabama is a classic example of an increasingly extreme situation in a death penalty state. “They convince themselves that no matter how much the person suffered the first time, it's okay to execute them twice. It is a “textbook'' scene of a man being executed with nitrogen gas as he continues to writhe and gasp. ”
The Associated Press contributed reporting.
