A DEATH row inmate is scheduled to be killed with nitrogen gas months after the new execution method caused another prisoner to suffer in agony for 22 minutes.
Convicted triple murderer Alan Eugene Miller, 59, will be put to death in Alabama on Thursday, marking the second-ever nitrogen gas execution by the state.
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Miller, who was convicted of the workplace murders of Lee Holdbrooks, Christopher Scott Yancy, and Terry Jarvis in 2000, was due to die by lethal injection in 2022 – but his execution was called off after prison staff was unable to find a vein.
At the time, Miller was left hanging vertically on a gurney for over an hour as three workers tried and failed to locate a vein, poking him multiple times in the process.
Now, the convicted murderer is slated to be executed by nitrogen gas.
Miller, who weighs over 350 pounds, previously testified in a court hearing that medical workers always have trouble locating his veins.
Read more in The U.S. Sun
He fought to outright stop his execution in March but eventually agreed to be executed by nitrogen gas.
Miller also voiced concern that prison staff would have trouble securing the gas mask over his face, according to court records obtained by NBC News.
“Are these people that are going to fit (the mask), what’s their training?” Miller wrote.
“I’ve got a big old head. Nothing else fits my head.”
The Alabama Attorney General’s Office previously argued in court documents that the execution method would be “swift and painless.”
However, the office was hit with backlash as some spectators called the method the “most violent” form of death after witnessing Kenneth Eugue Smith’s execution in January.
Smith died on January 25 after being administered pure nitrogen gas through a face mask while strapped to a gurney.
“Tonight, Alabama causes humanity to take a step backward,” Smith said moments before he breathed in the gas.
“Humanity rose up….I am leaving with love, peace, and light…..I love you. Thank you for supporting me. I love all of you.”
He also made an I love you sign with his hand as his family watched from the window of the death chamber.
After the mask is placed on an inmate, the breathable air is replaced with pure nitrogen gas and they die as a result of oxygen.
Smith, 58, was supposed to quickly lose consciousness seconds after donning the mask, but he remained alert for several minutes, the Alabama Attorney General’s Office said at the time.
Instead, Smith shook and writhed on the gurney, ripping his head forward and back for approximately two minutes, witnesses recalled.
As he lay in the death chamber, Smith breathed heavily for five to seven minutes before dying, according to Alabama Live.
‘MOST VIOLENT EXECUTION’
Journalist Lee Hedgepeth, who was present during Smith’s execution, described the horrific sight to the BBC.
“The curtains of the execution chamber pulled back. Kenny is lying strapped to a gurney. His upper body is strapped,” he recalled.
“Kenny begins to violently shake against the straps that are holding him,” Hedgepeth said after the prisoner was administered the gas.
“That violent shaking lasts for about four or five minutes.
“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.”
The disturbing sight and length of the execution led to an argument over whether Smith endured an unconstitutional level of pain.
However, the state’s attorney general, Steve Marshall, has maintained the method is “reliable and humane” and Alabama is set to execute a third inmate by nitrogen gas in November.
MILLER’S CRIMES
Miller murdered his three coworkers in Pelham, a city outside Birmingham, on August 5, 1999.
The delivery driver brought a gun to work and was heard saying he was “tired of people starting rumors on me.”
He killed Holdbrooks, 32, and Yancy, 28, at Ferguson Enterprises then drove to his old workplace, Post Airgas, and shot Jarvis, 39, dead.
Miller tried to argue he was not guilty by reason of insanity but withdrew the plea and was found guilty after just 20 minutes of jury deliberations.
He’s set to be put to death at 6 pm local time at the Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore.
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What is nitrogen gas, and how does it work?
In 2018, Alabama authoritized the use of nitrogen gas as a method of execution for death row inmates.
Convicted murderer Kenneth Eugue Smith was the first inmate on death row to be executed by nitrogen gas on January 25, 2024.
Death row prisoner Alan Eugene Miller is scheduled to be executed via the same method on September 26, 2024.
What is nitrogen gas, and how does it work in executions?
- Nitrogen exists in the atmosphere and composes around 75% of the air that humans and animals breathe daily.
- However, the colorless and odorless gas is only safe to inhale when mixed with an appropriate oxygen concentration.
- If not, the air can be toxic.
- Nitrogen hypoxia is a process where pure nitrogen gas is concentrated to an extremely high level to be lethal.
- The concentrated nitrogen gas rapidly empties the body of oxygen.
- Death row inmates executed by nitrogen gas breathe pure nitrogen through a mask, which quickly displaces oxygen in their system.