Judge halts Alan Eugene Miller’s execution in Alabama

• Alan Eugene Miller will be allowed to choose how he is executed.
• Judge halts execution and says he can die by nitrogen hypoxia.
• This method had been prohibited in Alabama.

A prisoner who was facing the death penalty, was given a temporary reprieve and he won’t die by lethal injection. Alan Eugene Miller was granted an unusual request he made a couple of years ago: to die by inhaling nitrogen.

The judge’s ruled that on September 22, Alan Eugene Miller will by executed by nitrogen hypoxia. He was imprisoned after being convicted of a triple murder in 1999. In his request, he alludes to the «painful and cruel» death by lethal injection.

HIS REQUEST IS GRANTED

An Alabama federal judge announced that an execution has been halted and lethal injection for a prisoner on death row has been banned for the first time in Alabama. The initial reports indicate that the inmate made that special request to the authorities, indicating that he preferred death by nitrogen hypoxia, according to CNN.

Nitrogen hypoxia is a type of execution where the person is asphyxiated using nitrogen gas. This type of death is still not approved, due to questions that exist about how quick and painless it really is. Some people insist that it is, while others clarify that it could cause significant damage, but not death.

To avoid injury?

In the order from federal judge, Austin Huffaker Jr., it was specified that the inmate could suffer irreparable injuries from lethal injection. He prefers nitrogen gas and suffocation, because he claims the first method will be painful.

Without the injunction, the inmate, Alan Eugene Miller, «would likely suffer irreparable injury because he will be deprived of the ability to die by the method he chose and instead be forced to die by a method he tried to avoid and which he claims will be painful,” US District Judge Austin Huffaker Jr. announced in his order, according to CNN.

The wrong decision?

Death by asphyxiation through nitrogen gas has not yet been proven by the state and, according to Robert Dunham, inmates who are choosing this new form of execution over lethal injection are making an uninformed choice. For this reason, this method of death had not yet been tested.

«Inmates like Miller, however, are making an uninformed choice,» Robert Dunham, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, told CNN. After the recent statements, it was indicated that the inmate had requested this form of execution since 2018, although they believe that the paperwork was «lost.»

Have other states authorized nitrogen hypoxia?

Nitrogen hypoxia, which is supposed to cause death by replacing oxygen with nitrogen, has been licensed by Alabama and two other states for executions but has never been used by a state, The Associated Press reported. In the states where it was admitted, its use has been highly questioned.

Before the judge’s decision was released, Miller contends prison staff lost paperwork he returned in 2018 requesting nitrogen as a method of execution rather than lethal injection. The Alabama attorney general’s office argued there is no evidence that Miller returned the form, the AP reported. Filed Under: Alan Eugene Miller Execution

Alan Eugene Miller Execution: What was he convicted of?

Miller, a delivery driver, was convicted of a workplace shooting that killed Lee Holdbrooks, Scott Yancy and Terry Jarvis in suburban Birmingham. Miller shot Holdbrooks and Yancy at a business and then drove to another location to shoot Jarvis, according to evidence.

Miller was delusional and believed the men were spreading rumors about him, including that he was gay, testimony showed. A defense psychiatrist said Miller suffered from a serious mental illness, but that his condition was not bad enough to be used as a basis for an insanity defense under state law, reported Associated Press. Filed Under: Alan Eugene Miller Execution