Alabama has approved the use of nitrogen gas for the execution of another inmate, following its first-ever execution using this method earlier in the year. On Thursday, the Alabama Supreme Court responded to the request from the state attorney general by setting an execution date for Alan Eugene Miller, who had previously survived an attempt at lethal injection in 2022.
The governor of Alabama will determine the specific date for Miller’s execution, who was found guilty of murdering three coworkers in 1999. In seeking the execution date earlier in February, the Alabama attorney general’s office stated that nitrogen gas would be employed for the execution.
Who is Alan Eugene Miller?
This past January, Alabama executed Kenneth Smith using nitrogen gas. During his execution on January 25, Smith experienced several minutes of shaking and convulsions that resembled seizures.
Miller is presently involved in a federal lawsuit that challenges the use of nitrogen gas as an execution method, arguing that it breaches the constitutional prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. This lawsuit references the conditions of Smith’s death as witnessed.
“Rather than address these failures, the State of Alabama has attempted to maintain secrecy and avoid public scrutiny, in part by misrepresenting what happened in this botched execution,” the lawyers wrote. It is expected that his attorneys will ask the federal judge to block the execution from going forward.
Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall maintained that the execution was “textbook” and said the state will seek to carry out more death sentences using nitrogen gas.
“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 in the February motion seeking the execution authorization. State attorneys added that Miller has been on death row since 2000 and that it is time to carry out his sentence.
An attorney listed for Miller did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment on the lawsuit. A spokesman for Marshall confirmed the court authorized the execution but did not immediately comment.
Miller, a delivery truck driver, was convicted of killing Terry Jarvis, Lee Holdbrooks, and Scott Yancy in the workplace shooting.