Alabama is set to carry out the second execution in the United States using nitrogen hypoxia, a controversial method critics say is tantamount to torture. According to CNN, a previous attempt to execute Alan Eugene Miller, 59, using lethal injection was called off two years ago after state officials said they couldn’t access his veins before the execution warrant expired. Now on Thursday, he will be strapped to a gurney where a respirator mask will be applied to his face through which pure nitrogen will be piped. The resulting oxygen deprivation will cause death by asphyxia.
Republican Alabama Governor Kay Ivey has designated a 30-hour window beginning Thursday morning for the 59-year-old’s execution to take place, CNN reported.
Miller has been in jail for more than two decades. He was sentenced to death in 2000 for the 1999 murders of Lee Holdbrooks, Scott Yancy and Terry Lee Jarvis. He had worked with each of the victims and became upset when he believed the three “spread rumours about him”, according to the outlet.
On August 5, 1999, Miller shot two of the three men at Ferguson Enterprises in Pelham, Alabama. “I’m tired of people starting rumours on me,” Miller said, armed with a pistol while walking out of his employer’s office. He then shot Scott Yancy three times and Lee Holdbrooks six times. He then headed to his previous employer, Post Airgas, where Terry Lee Jarvis worked and shot him “a number of times”.
Miller was later captured on the highway with “a Glock pistol with one round in the chamber and 11 rounds in the ammunition magazine,” per CNN.
A forensic psychiatrist who testified for Miller’s defence determined he was mentally ill and suffering a delusional disorder, leading him to believe the victims were spreading rumours about him. The psychiatrist concluded, however, that Miller’s mental illness didn’t meet the standards for an insanity defence in Alabama.
Notably, Miller’s execution via nitrogen hypoxia comes nearly three years after Alabama officials tried to execute him by lethal injection, but failed because they could not access his veins within the required time limit. It also comes after a federal lawsuit filed by Miller over the use of nitrogen gas in his execution was settled last month.
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The 59-year-old had challenged the state’s nitrogen hypoxia protocol, claiming it could cause him undue suffering, thus violating his Eighth Amendment protections against cruel and unusual punishment. The terms of the settlement are confidential, though state Attorney General Steve Marshall touted it as proof Alabama’s nitrogen gas execution method – which was used for the first and only time earlier this year in the execution of Kenneth Smith – is constitutional, as per the outlet.
“The resolution of this case confirms that Alabama’s nitrogen hypoxia system is reliable and humane,” Mr Marshall said in a statement.
