THE state of Alabama is set to put a second inmate to death with nitrogen gas just a month after the first-ever execution using that method was blasted as "agonizing and painful."
The attorney general has asked the state's Supreme Court to set a date for the execution of convicted murderer Alan Eugene Miller.
“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.
Miller, 59, has been on death row since 2000 after shooting Lee Holdbrooks, Scott Yancy, and Terry Jarvis dead in suburban Birmingham, Alabama.
The former truck driver first shot Holdbrooks and Yancy at one location before driving to another business to kill Jarvis.
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Jurors convicted Miller after just 20 minutes of deliberation and recommended the death sentence, which a judge imposed.
Miller was supposed to be executed in September 2022 but officials were unable to get the intravenous line connected to a vein.
The killer claimed that during this attempt, staffers spent over an hour poking him with needles, and even hung him vertically as he was strapped to the gurney.
After the failed execution, the state agreed with Miller's lawyers that they would not try to use lethal injection on the prisoner again, leading them to instead choose death by nitrogen hypoxia.
CONTROVERSIAL METHOD
The method was carried out for the first time ever on January 25, when Kenneth Smith was executed.
Witnesses said the killer suffered in agony for a total of 22 minutes after the gas began to flow with one journalist branding it the "most violent execution" he had seen.
Moments before inhaling the nitrogen gas, Smith could be heard saying his final words.
"Tonight, Alabama causes humanity to take a step backward," he said.
"Humanity rose up….I am leaving with love, peace, and light…..I love you. Thank you for supporting me. I love all of you."
A mask resembling what a firefighter would wear was then put on his face and he was administered a dose of 100 percent nitrogen gas.
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The convicted criminal was said to have shaken and convulsed in seizure-like movements for several minutes on the death chamber gurney.
His wife, Deanna, cried out for her husband as he fought against the gurney's restraints.
"I've witnessed five executions in Alabama. Four of them lethal injection. One with nitrogen, and this was the most violent execution I have ever seen," journalist Lee Hedgepeth, who witnessed the execution, told the BBC.
Smith's spiritual advisor called the execution "disgusting," and said that the inmate struggled for minutes, heaving back and forth.
"A great evil was unleashed on the state of Alabama tonight,” Reverend Jeff Hood said.
'HUMAN EXPERIMENT'
Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall countered that sentiment, and referred to the method as “textbook,” informing residents that they plan to carry out more death sentences using nitrogen gas.
“As of last night, nitrogen hypoxia as a means of execution is no longer an untested method. It is a proven one,” Marshall said the morning after Smith’s execution.
However, many were not convinced by Marshall's assurance and even a Supreme Court Justice raised concerns about the method.
"Having failed to kill Smith on its first attempt, Alabama has selected him as its ‘guinea pig’ to test a method of execution never attempted before," wrote Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who voted against killing Smith via the controversial method.
"The world is watching."
An anonymous death row inmate filed a lawsuit after Smith's death with a witness statement referring to the execution as a “human experiment.”
“The results of the first human experiment are now in and they demonstrate that nitrogen gas asphyxiation is neither quick nor painless, but agonizing and painful,” the lawsuit said.
Both Smith and Miller survived previous attempts at lethal injection.
“Nitrogen hypoxia is the wrong name. It should be called execution by suffocation,” Abraham Bonowitz, executive director of the anti-death penalty group Death Penalty Action, said in an email to The Associated Press.
The group protested outside the Alabama prison ahead of Smith’s execution.
Alabama, Oklahoma, and Mississippi are the only three states that have approved the use of nitrogen hypoxia for executions.
