After Alabama became the first state to execute a death row prisoner via nitrogen gas in January, the state is set to perform 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
    10·
    3 months ago

    Yeah, I would tentatively agree that nitrogen hypoxia when performed correctly is in fact painless (although we’re also talking about the same Sarco that just got several people arrested by running afoul of Switzerland’s product safety and chemical laws on the first ever test of their capsule). Of course here, whatever method Alabama is using is not painless and caused its first victim intense, prolonged suffering.

    • ShadowRam@fedia.io
      11·
      3 months ago

      Alabama is doing it wrong.

      Inventor of the Sarco unit

      In 2024, Nitschke appeared in an Alabama court as an expert witness to oppose the state’s plan to execute convicted killer Kenneth Smith using a mask-and-gas technique incorporating nitrogen.[76] Nitschke testified that the mask-and-gas approach had been rejected decades ago because it was unreliable, and that Smith could be “horribly maimed without a complete seal between mask and face” leading to incomplete cerebral hypoxia and a resultant vegetative state.[76] Nitschke said that nitrogen must be delivered correctly to work as intended. Nitschke said the Alabama nitrogen hypoxia method was “quick and nasty” and ignored the possibilities of vomiting and air leakage.