Alabama puts man to death in country's second nitrogen gas execution: NPR

Officers escort murder suspect Alan Eugene Miller from Pelham City Jail in Alabama on August 5, 1999.

Dave Martin/AP

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Dave Martin/AP

ATMORE, Ala. (AP) — Alabama used nitrogen gas Thursday to execute a man convicted of killing three people in back-to-back workplace shootings. This is the second time the method, which has sparked debate about its humanity, has been used in the country.

Alan Eugene Miller, 59, was pronounced dead at a prison in southern Alabama at 6:38 p.m. local time. He trembled and trembled on the stretcher for about two minutes, his body straining intermittently against the restraints. There were about six minutes of regular, panting breaths before he became still.

Miller was convicted in 1999 of killing three men – Lee Holdbrooks, Christopher Scott Yancy and Terry Jarvis – and the state previously tried to execute him by lethal injection in 2022.

“I didn’t do anything to be in here,” Miller said in his final words, muffled at times by the blue-rimmed gas mask that covered his face from forehead to chin. However, witnesses at the trial had expressed no doubt about his guilt and described that Miller shot the three men.

At the execution, Miller also asked his family and friends to “take care of” someone, but it was not clear whose name he mentioned.

Miller was one of five inmates executed in a week, an unusually high number that bucks a long-standing trend of declining use of the death penalty in the United States

“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 insane, but simply evil. Three families were forever changed by his heinous crimes, and I pray they can find comfort all these years later.”

Family members of the three victims did not witness the execution and did not provide a statement read to reporters, state officials said.

The execution was the second to use the new method, which Alabama first used in January when Kenneth Smith was executed. In this method, a breathing gas mask is placed over the occupant's face to replace the breathing air with pure nitrogen gas, resulting in death from oxygen deficiency.

Alabama officials and advocates have argued over whether Smith suffered an unconstitutional level of pain during his execution, after he shook in paroxysmal convulsions for several minutes and at times rocked the gurney back and forth. Smith then gasped for air for several minutes. The tremors that Miller exhibited were similar to those seen during the first nitrogen gas execution, but did not appear to be as long or as severe.

Alabama Corrections Commissioner John Q. Hamm said the shaking was expected.

“Just like Smith, which we talked about, there will be involuntary body movements because the body is deprived of oxygen. So it wasn’t anything we didn’t expect,” Hamm said.

Hamm said the nitrogen gas flowed for 15 minutes during the execution.

“Everything went according to plan and according to our protocol,” he said.

Miller, a delivery truck driver, was convicted of murder for the Aug. 5, 1999, shooting that left three people dead and shocked the town of Pelham, a suburb south of Birmingham.

According to police, Miller entered Ferguson Enterprises early that morning and fatally shot two employees: Holdbrooks, 32, and Yancy, 28. He then drove five miles away to Post Airgas, where he had previously worked, and shot Jarvis, 39. Testimony at trial suggested that Miller was paranoid and believed his colleagues had gossiped about him.

“They were spreading rumors about me,” one witness described Miller before he opened fire. All three men were shot multiple times.

Miller initially pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, but later withdrew the plea. A psychiatrist hired by the defense said Miller was mentally ill but his condition was not serious enough to be used as the basis for an insanity defense, court documents show. Jurors convicted Miller after deliberating for 20 minutes, recommending by a vote of 10 to 2 that he receive the death penalty.

In 2022, the state abandoned its previous attempt to execute Miller after failing to connect an IV line to the 351-pound (159-kilogram) inmate. Miller initially challenged the nitrogen gas protocol but dropped his lawsuit after reaching an undisclosed settlement with the state.

Hamm said the state has not changed the protocol. Among other things, Miller had requested the administration of a sedative. Hamm would not say whether Miller was given a sedative and referred questions about the settlement to Miller's attorneys.