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4 months ago
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Alabama has authorized the second ever execution via nitrogen hypoxia, months after the same method sparked controversy in the state.
The state's Supreme Court granted a request from the state Attorney General on Thursday to schedule the execution of killer Alan Eugene Miller, 57.
Miller was convicted of killing three men in a 1999 workplace shooting, and previously survived an execution attempt in 2022 due to ongoing issues with lethal injections.
His execution, an exact date for which has not been set, will be carried out with the experimental nitrogen gas method, despite the execution of Kenneth Eugene Smith in January casting doubt over its efficacy as he took over 20 minutes to suffocate to death.
Alan Eugene Miller, 57, who was sentenced to death for killing three men in 1999, is set to become the second person to ever be executed via nitrogen hypoxia
Miller (pictured after his arrest in August 1999) previously survived an execution in 2022 due to flaws in the lethal injection system
When Miller survived his first execution in 2022, he was poked with needles for over an hour in a bungled attempt to find a vein to inject him with a lethal cocktail.
At one point, he was let hanging vertically on a gurney to improve blood flow, and his ordeal was cited by his attorneys as they failed in a request to stay his second execution.
The use of nitrogen gas as a new method - where a gas mask is strapped to an inmate's face before they are suffocated - is also being contested by Miller in an ongoing lawsuit.
He cited the experience of the Kenneth Eugene Smith in his argument that it violates a constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
Witnesses to Smith's execution said he struggled against his restraints and convulsed for over 20 minutes, amid fears the gas mask was not fitted to his face causing a slow suffocation.
Smith, a hitman, was sentenced to death over the 1988 murder of a pastor's wife, for which he was only paid $1,000.
Kenneth Eugene Smith was sentenced to death in 1996 after admitting the murder-for-hire killing of a pastor's wife who was beaten and stabbed in 1988. In January, he became the first person in US history to be executed with nitrogen gas
Smith was sentenced to death over the 1988 murder of Elizabeth Sennett, 45, (right) in a hit that he was only paid $1,000 for
Alabama officials have insisted that Smith's first ever nitrogen execution was a success, with Attorney General Steve Marshall maintaining the method is 'textbook.'
Marshall says Alabama will continue to seek out more executions via nitrogen hypoxia, adding: 'The State of Alabama is prepared to carry out the execution of Miller’s sentence by means of nitrogen hypoxia.'
In his motion in February seeking out Miller's execution, he said that it was beyond time to execute the killer as he has sat on death row since 2000.
Miller's execution comes 25 years after he shot and killed three men - Lee Holdbrooks, Christopher Scott Yancy, and Terry Jarvis - in a workplace shooting.
He was reportedly suffering a 'delusional episode' and believed the men were spreading false rumors about him, but has never claimed he was not the perpetrator.
At his trial, prosecutors described how he methodically opened fire at two businesses, noting the 'men were not just murdered - they were executed.'
At his failed execution in 2022, Miller was forced to endure over an hour of injection attempts, which included medics using a cellphone flashlight to help their search for a vein.
Issues with lethal injections have plagued death rows across the nation for years, primarily stemming from a reluctance from pharmacies to produce lethal injection drugs.
This has led some states, such as Texas, to merely extend the use-by dates of the drugs, triggering an ongoing lawsuit from the inmates they are used upon amid claims the extended drugs are painful.
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