This is the fifth inmate executed in the United States within one week. This is also the greatest use of capital punishment the country witnessed in two decades
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The US State of Alabama conducted the execution of death row inmate Alan Eugene Miller. What makes the execution significant is the fact that Miller became the second American ever put to death by inhaling nitrogen gas. The 59-year-old was sentenced to death over back-to-back workplace murders of Lee Holdbrooks, Christopher Scott Yancy and Terry Lee Jarvis in 1999.
This is the fifth inmate executed in the United States within one week. This is also the greatest use of capital punishment the country witnessed in two decades. Meanwhile, on the same day, an inmate named Emmanuel Littlejohn received a lethal injection in the state of Oklahoma after the state’s governor refused to grant him a last-minute clemency.
Miller became the 18th death row inmate to be executed so far this year and seven more are scheduled for the remaining three months of 2024. It also marked the 1600th execution in the US since the country’s Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976.
What was his final words?
Miller was pronounced dead at 6:38 pm (local time) at a prison in Atmore. His death was confirmed by Alabama Department of Corrections Commissioner John Hamm. According to The Associated Press, Miller shook and trembled on the gurney for about two minutes. “I didn’t do anything to be in here,” Miller said in his final words, which at times were muffled by a mask that covered his face from forehead to chin.
The 59-year-old was fitted with the mask during the procedure and nitrogen gas flowed into the mask for about 15 minutes. “There’s going to be involuntary body movements as the body is depleted of oxygen. That is nothing we did not expect,” Hamm said at the news conference after the execution.
“Everything went according to plan and according to our protocol, so it went just as we had planned,” he added. Hamm also stated that at one point, a correction officer had to adjust Miller’s mask in order to ensure that it was fitted.
“Tonight, justice was finally served for these three victims through the execution method elected by the inmate,” Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey said in a release. “His acts were not that of insanity, but pure evil. Three families were forever changed by his heinous crimes, and I pray that they can find comfort all these years later,” Ivey furthered.
The saga of picking a mode of execution
Miller’s execution came after a yearslong chain of events surrounding how he would be put to death. He initially requested death nitrogen hypoxia. However, the state at that time was not prepared to conduct the execution that way.
In September 2022, the state initially attempted to execute him by lethal injection. That attempt was eventually called off when the state officials revealed that they could not access Miller’s veins before the execution warrant expired.
Earlier this year, the state of Alabama executed Kenneth Smith by nitrogen hypoxia. Smith’s execution was the first one conducted by the method. This paved the way for Miller’s execution. However, the death row inmate then challenged the state’s nitrogen hypoxia protocol in a federal lawsuit, claiming it could cause him undue suffering, thus violating his Eighth Amendment protections against cruel and unusual punishment.
The suit however was settled last month. “The resolution of this case confirms that Alabama’s nitrogen hypoxia system is reliable and humane,” state Attorney General Steve Marshall said after the lawsuit was settled.
Before his execution, Miller had nine visitors and in his final meal he had hamburger steak, baked potato and French fries, the Alabama Department of Corrections said.
With inputs from the Associated Press.
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Publish date : 2024-09-26 16:51:00
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