Alabama Supreme Court approves second nitrogen execution

This undated photograph provided by the Alabama Department of Corrections shows inmate Alan Eugene Miller, who was convicted of capital murder in a workplace shooting rampage that killed three men in 1999. (Alabama Department of Corrections via AP)

By KIM CHANDLER Associated Press

The Alabama Supreme Court has authorized the execution of a second inmate by nitrogen gas, months after the state became the first state to put a person to death with the previously untested method.

Justices granted Attorney General Steve Marshall’s request for an execution date for Alan Eugene Miller, who survived a 2022 lethal injection attempt.

It will be up to Gov. Kay Ivey to set the exact date of the execution, who was convicted of killing three men during a 1999 workplace shooting in Shelby County.

In January, the state used nitrogen gas to execute Kenneth Smith for the murder-for-hire killing of 45-year-old Elizabeth Sennett in Colbert County 1988. Smith shook and convulsed in seizure-like movements for several minutes on the gurney.

Miller has an ongoing federal lawsuit challenging the execution method as a violation of the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment, citing witness descriptions of Smith’s death.

“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.

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 in the 1999 workplace shootings that killed Lee Holdbrooks, Scott Yancy and Terry Jarvis. Miller shot Holdbrooks and Yancy at one business and then drove to another location to shoot Jarvis, evidence showed.

Trial testimony indicated that Miller believed the men were spreading rumors about him, including that he was gay. A defense psychiatrist hired found that Miller suffered from delusions and severe mental illness, according to court documents, but he also said Miller’s condition wasn’t bad enough to use as a basis for an insanity defense under state law.

(Copyright 2024 The Associated Press contributed to this report. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)