Alabama: convicted rapist and murderer executed by nitrogen inhalation

Demetrius Frazier, a 52-year-old American sentenced to death nearly three decades ago for the rape and murder of a woman, was executed Thursday in Alabama by nitrogen inhalation.

It is the fourth time the gas has been used to execute a prisoner in the state, the only one that has employed the protocol, which debuted in the world a year ago. Other regions resort to lethal injections.

Execution by nitrogen inhalation causes death by hypoxia (oxygen deficiency).

Frazier had been sentenced to death in 1996 for the rape and murder of Pauline Brown five years earlier in Birmingham, Alabama. The man broke into the apartment of Brown, a 40-year-old mother of two, raped her and shot her in the head.

According to court documents, Frazier, who was African-American, accused the jury during the trial of being racist. The man had already been convicted of rape and murder in 1992 of Crystal Kendrick, a 14-year-old girl, in the state of Michigan, where the death penalty does not exist.

He was serving a life sentence there for the girl's murder and two other rape convictions.

Frazier was transferred to Alabama in 2011. His appeals to be imprisoned in Michigan and against the nitrogen inhalation method of execution were rejected by U.S. courts.

He was finally executed Thursday at an Atmore prison. The Alabama Department of Corrections reported that he was pronounced dead at 18H36 local (00H36 GMT).

This is the third execution in the United States in 2025. There were 25 in 2024 and 24 in 2023.