Alabama has executed Alan Eugene Miller, 59, using nitrogen gas, the second time the controversial method has been used in the United States. Miller was pronounced dead at 6.38pm local time on Thursday at a south Alabama prison.
Witnesses reported that Miller shook and trembled on the gurney for about two minutes, with his body at times pulling against the restraints, followed by approximately six minutes of gasping. The method involves strapping the prisoner down and piping pure nitrogen into a respirator mask, causing death by oxygen deprivation.
Miller's final words were 'I didn't do anything to be in here' and 'I didn't do anything to be on death row,' according to reporters who witnessed the execution. His voice was at times muffled by the mask covering his face from forehead to chin.
Miller was convicted of the 1999 shootings that killed three co-workers: Lee Holdbrooks, Christopher Scott Yancy, and Terry Jarvis. Alabama Governor Kay Ivey stated, 'Tonight, justice was finally served for these three victims. His acts were not that of insanity, but pure evil.'
Both Miller and Kenneth Smith, who was the first person executed by nitrogen gas in January, had previously survived attempted lethal injections. In Miller's case, his 2022 execution attempt was called off after he was repeatedly punctured with needles and left hanging vertically on the gurney in severe pain. His lawyers argued this cruel punishment should have disqualified Alabama from further attempts, but the state proceeded with the nitrogen method.
Maya Foa of the human rights group Reprieve criticised the execution, saying Alabama was typical of 'the increasingly extreme lengths to which death penalty states are prepared to go.' She added that the state was 'telling themselves that executing people twice is fine, no matter how much the person suffered the first time.'
