Alabama executes Alan Eugene Miller with nitrogen gas for 1999 killings
abcnews.go.com
After Alabama became the first state to execute a death row prisoner via nitrogen gas in January, the state carried out the second-ever execution on Thursday.

Alabama is set to perform the second-ever nitrogen gas execution in the United States on Thursday.

Alan Eugene Miller, 59, was sentenced to death for the 1999 murders of his then-coworkers Lee Holdbrooks and Christoper Scott Yancy, and his former supervisor Terry Lee Jarvis.

Miller was to be executed in September 2022 via lethal injection, but it was called off after officials had trouble inserting an intravenous line to administer the fatal drugs and were concerned they would not be able to do so before the death warrant expired.

  • TheTechnician27@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    Per the John Oliver episode on the death penalty, there’s substantial evidence that murder by nitrogen suffocation is extremely painful.

    Edit: the episode and timestamp in question. Nitrogen hypoxia (edit: at least as it’s being performed by these ass-backward hicks) is not painless as some commenters are suggesting. Section lasts from about 23:00 to 24:45. An excerpt from the Wikipedia article properly sourced to the Associated Press, BBC News, and the Montgomery Advertiser (local Alabama newspaper):

    Though the State Attorney General said afterward that Smith’s execution showed that nitrogen hypoxia was an “effective and humane method of execution”, several people watching the execution reported that Smith “thrashed violently on the gurney” for several minutes, with his death reportedly occurring 10 minutes after the nitrogen was administered to the chamber. The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights condemned the use.

    And to be clear, the only reason these sick fucks are using nitrogen is because it’s becoming increasingly difficult to source potassium chloride the barbituate and paralytic for lethal injections because the optics for companies supplying them is abysmal.

    • killea@lemmy.world
      1·
      1 year ago

      If done properly it should be completely painless and almost unnoticeable. I have a feeling they’re fucking these up on purpose.

      • TexasDrunk@lemmy.world
        1·
        1 year ago

        Never attribute to malice what can be explained by plain old dumbfuckery. These podunk inbreds may do it for kicks (some of them are definitely malicious enough), but I think it’s pretty likely that they got someone named Cooter to do the final installation.

        This information is brought to you by a drunk that looks like he could be named Cooter. Or possibly Cletus.