Alabama carried out its second nitrogen gas execution of a man who was sentenced to death 24 years ago after being guilty of shooting three people to death. The execution method used by the state has been widely discussed and described as “agonizing and painful” by the United Nations.
Alan Eugene Miller, 59, was pronounced dead at 6:38 p.m. (local time) at a south Alabama prison. In information published by The Associated Press regarding the process, the condemned man shook and trembled on the stretcher for about two minutes, while his body sometimes strained against the restraints. About six minutes of periodic gasping followed until he died.
His last words
“I didn’t do anything to be here,” Miller said in his last words, which at times were muffled by the mask that covered his face from forehead to chin, AP shared.
Miller was one of five inmates scheduled to be executed soon. The first of them was Freddie Owens, from South Carolina; Travis Mullis, from Texas. Missouri’s Marcellus Williams and Oklahoma’s Emmanuel Littlejohn.
Procedure canceled in 2022
Eugene Miller had been on death row since 2000, after being convicted of fatally shooting Lee Holdbrooks, Scott Yancy and Terry Jarvis in suburban Birmingham, Alabama in 1999.
The state attempted to execute Miller on Sept. 22, 2022, but the procedure was called off after officials failed to connect an IV to the prisoner who weighed about 350 pounds (159 kilograms). That is why the nitrogen gas method was chosen, which was authorized by the governor of Alabama.
“Tonight, justice was finally served for these three victims through the inmate’s chosen method of execution,” Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey said in a statement.
“His actions were not madness, but pure evil. “Three families were forever changed by their heinous crimes, and I pray that they can find solace after all these years,” he continued.
The first execution was Kenneth Smith
This was the second execution to use the new method, which the state first employed in January of this year when Kenneth Smith was executed.
The method involves placing a gas mask over the inmate’s face to replace breathing air with pure nitrogen gas, resulting in death from lack of oxygen. For the UN, this method has been described as “agonizing and painful.”
Alabama officials and advocacy groups debated after Smith’s death whether he suffered an unconstitutional level of pain during his execution.
Witnesses who were present that day said he shook with seizure-like spasms for more than two minutes while strapped to the gurney and then gasped for air for several minutes, similar to what Miller suffered.
A psychiatrist hired by the defense said Miller was mentally ill, but his condition was not serious enough to be used as a basis for an insanity defense, and he was sentenced to the death penalty, according to court documents.
Keep reading:
- Alabama seeks third nitrogen execution after being the first state to use this method
- Inmate convicted of murder in 1994 executed by lethal injection in Florida
- Marcellus Williams was executed in Missouri by lethal injection