Alabama Executes Prisoner Again with Nitrogen Gas

Alabama again used nitrogen gas to execute an inmate convicted of triple murder. Alan Eugene Miller, 59, was pronounced dead at 6:38 p.m. local time Thursday at the Atmore prison in the southern part of the state.

Alan Miller, the death row inmate, was executed for murdering three co-workers - Lee Holdbrooks, Chistopher Scott Yancy and Terry Lee Jarvis - in three consecutive workplace shootings in 1999.

This is the second time the hypoxia asphyxiation method of nitrogen gas asphyxiation has been used in the country, which has generated debate because of the procedure used. A face mask pumps nitrogen gas until the prisoner faints and dies. The method was first used in Alabama last January in the execution of inmate Kenneth Smith, 58.

"I didn’t do anything to be on death row," Miller said in his last words despite the fact that witnesses at trial had expressed no doubt about his guilt. For her part, the state's governor, Republican Kay Ivey, had said she would not exercise her clemency power in favor of Miller, who was originally scheduled to be executed by lethal injection in September 2022, when the procedure was postponed due to technical difficulties.