Alabama Seeks Second Execution by Nitrogen Gas

Alabama's lethal injection chamber at Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, Ala., on Oct. 7, 2002. (Dave Martin/AP Photo)

Alabama is gearing up for its second execution utilizing nitrogen gas, an approach to carrying out death sentences that the state tested for the first time ever in January.

Attorney General Steve Marshall’s office has formally requested the state Supreme Court to schedule the execution of Alan Eugene Miller, convicted of a 1999 workplace shooting spree in suburban Birmingham. Miller, 59, was found guilty of the 1999 shootings that left three people dead at two workplaces in suburban Birmingham.

“The State of Alabama is prepared to carry out the execution of Miller’s sentence by means of nitrogen hypoxia,” the attorney general’s office wrote, emphasizing that Miller has spent over two decades on death row and it is time to carry out his sentence.

This follows closely on the heels of Alabama’s first execution using nitrogen hypoxia, involving inmate Kenneth Smith, which was controversial before and after its first use last month, with advocates and opponents arguing over the method’s humanity and efficacy.

Despite contrasting opinions on the execution method, Mr. Marshall stands firm on the procedure’s success.

“Tonight also marked the first time in the nation–and the world–that nitrogen hypoxia was used as the method of execution,” he said last month. “The law authorizing the execution method was enacted in 2018 and was intended to be—and has now proved to be—an effective and humane method of execution.”

Controversial First Use of Nitrogen Hypoxia

The first execution using nitrogen gas was not without its critics. Eyewitness accounts described Kenneth Smith experiencing seizure-like convulsions during the process, according to The Associated Press, raising serious questions about the pain involved in nitrogen hypoxia executions.

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A lawsuit from another death row inmate has called the method a “botched human experiment,” citing the distressing observations.

Despite these accounts, Mr. Marshall termed the execution “textbook,” highlighting Alabama’s pioneering role in employing nitrogen hypoxia.

“Like most states, Alabama has made the judgment that some crimes are so horrific that they warrant the ultimate penalty,” Mr. Marshall said in defending the use of the new method. “But anti-death-penalty activists have worked to nullify that moral judgment through pressure campaigns against anyone assisting states in the process. They don’t care that Alabama’s new method is humane and effective, because they know it is also easy to carry out.”

The son of the victim in that case, Charles Sennett Jr., told WAAY-TV that the inmate “has to pay for what he’s done,” adding: “And some of these people out there say, ‘Well, he doesn’t need to suffer like that.’ Well, he didn’t ask Mama how to suffer.”

“They just did it. They stabbed her, multiple times,” Mr. Sennett said, referring to the crime committed by Mr. Smith and another man, who was executed by the state about a decade ago.

Legal and Ethical Debates

The move to execute Mr. Miller using nitrogen gas comes after a failed lethal injection attempt in 2022 due to difficulties in establishing an intravenous line.

Alabama officials then opted to use nitrogen gas, which was appealed by the inmate’s lawyers and reached the Supreme Court. So far, only three states—Alabama, Mississippi, and Oklahoma—have approved the method of execution known as nitrogen hypoxia.

The state’s subsequent agreement with Miller’s attorneys promised that any future execution attempts would employ nitrogen gas, steering clear of lethal injection.

Critics argue that the method is more akin to “execution by suffocation,” Abraham Bonowitz of Death Penalty Action told the AP, emphasizing the perceived inhumanity of the process.

Looking Ahead

As Alabama sets the stage for its second execution using nitrogen gas, other states that have faced difficulty in procuring the drugs used for lethal injections watch closely. The debates surrounding the method’s humanity, its legal challenges, and its potential adoption by other states signify a pivotal moment in the ongoing discourse on capital punishment.

South Carolina officials argued to that state’s high court earlier this month that there is a need to bring back electrocution and firing squads as a means to carry out capital punishment.

There, the South Carolina Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a case in which death-sentenced prisoners challenged the state’s electrocution and firing squad execution methods as unconstitutional, citing the Eighth Amendment of the United States Constitution and the state’s own Constitution, which prohibits cruel and unusual punishment, with the addition of corporal punishment for the latter.

That court has yet to rule on the matter of whether those two execution methods can be used in the future.

Whether death by nitrogen hypoxia becomes a standard practice or faces further scrutiny remains to be seen, but what is clear is Alabama’s role at the forefront of this controversial issue.

Jack Phillips and The Associated Press contributed to this report.