Alabama to move forward with nitrogen gas execution in September after lawsuit settlement

 1646001691 
1722932416
In this file photo, Officials escort Alan Eugene Miller away from the Pelham City Jail in Alabama, Aug. 5, 1999.

In this file photo, Officials escort Alan Eugene Miller away from the Pelham City Jail in Alabama, Aug. 5, 1999. Miller was the second person executed by nitrogen gas in the U.S. in September.

Dave Martin, AP Photo

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Alabama’s attorney general said Monday that another nitrogen gas execution will go forward in September after the state reached a settlement agreement with the inmate slated to be the second person put to death with the new method.

Alabama and attorneys for Alan Miller, who was convicted of killing three men, reached a “confidential settlement agreement” to end litigation filed by Miller, according to a court document filed Monday. Miller’s lawsuit cited witness descriptions of the January execution of Kenneth Smith with nitrogen gas as he sought to block the state from using the same protocol on him.

The court records did not disclose the terms of the agreement. Miller had suggested several changes to the state’s nitrogen gas protocol, including the use of medical grade nitrogen, having a trained professional supervise the gas flow and the use of sedative before the execution. Will Califf, a spokesman for Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall said he could not confirm if the state had agreed to make changes to execution procedures.

“Miller entered into a settlement on favorable terms to protect his constitutional right to be free from cruel and unusual punishments,” Mara E. Klebaner, an attorney representing Miller wrote in an email Monday night.

Marshall described the settlement as a victory for the use of nitrogen gas as an execution method. His office said it will allow Miller’s execution to be carried out in September with nitrogen gas.

“The resolution of this case confirms that Alabama’s nitrogen hypoxia system is reliable and humane,” Marshall said in a statement.

“Miller’s complaint was based on media speculation that Kenneth Smith suffered cruel and unusual punishment in the January 2024 execution, but what the state demonstrated to Miller’s legal team undermined that false narrative. Miller’s execution will go forward as planned in September.”

Marshall’s office had titled a press release announcing the settlement that the attorney general “successfully defends constitutionality” of nitrogen executions. An attorney for Miller disputed Marshall’s assessment.

“No court upheld the constitutionality of the state’s proposed nitrogen hypoxia method of execution in Mr. Miller’s case, thus the state’s claim that it “successfully defend(ed)” that method’s “constitutionality” is incorrect. By definition, a settlement agreement does not involve a ruling on the merits of the underlying claim,” Klebaner wrote in an email.

The settlement was filed a day before a federal judge was scheduled to hold a hearing in Miller’s request to block his upcoming Sept. 26 execution. Klebaner said that by entering into a settlement agreement that the state avoided a public hearing in the case.

Alabama executed Smith in January in the first execution using nitrogen gas. The new execution method uses a respirator mask fitted over the inmate’s face to replace their breathing air with nitrogen gas, causing the person to die from lack of oxygen.

Attorneys for Miller had pointed to witness descriptions of Smith shaking in seizure-like spasms for several minutes during his execution. The attorneys argued that nation’s first nitrogen execution was “disaster” and the state’s protocol did not deliver the quick death that the state promised a federal court that it would.

The state argued that Smith had held his breath which caused the execution to take longer than anticipated.

Miller, a delivery truck driver, was convicted of killing three men — Terry Jarvis, Lee Holdbrooks and Scott Yancy — during back-to-back workplace shootings in 1999.

Alabama had previously attempted to execute Miller by lethal injection. But the state called off the execution after being unable to connect an IV line to the 351-pound inmate. The state and Miller agreed that any other execution attempt would be done with nitrogen gas.

 

Court considers halting Trump’s mass firings of federal employees

A federal judge in San Francisco hears arguments in a case challenging the Trump administration's firings of thousands of probationary employees — those in their first year or so on the job.

ICE will reopen a major detention center in New Jersey as it eyes a broader expansion

The Trump administration is expanding its immigration detention capacity, reopening a 1,000-bed detention center in New Jersey and adding beds at other privately owned facilities around the country.

Martin Marty, leading scholar of American religion, dies at 97

Martin Marty, one of the foremost interpreters of religion in American public life, died on Tuesday. He was 97 years old.

2 years after Greece’s deadliest train crash, victims and families await answers

On Feb. 28, 2023, a passenger train and freight train collided, leaving 57 dead. New evidence suggests many may not have been killed by the crash itself, but by a fire that followed.

Trump says he doesn’t see need for U.S. security guarantees to end Ukraine-Russia war

In a meeting with the British Prime Minister, Trump said reaching a peace deal would be the "difficult part." He said security would be made easier by a U.S. deal with Ukraine on critical minerals.

Andrew Tate, facing rape and trafficking charges in Romania, is back in the U.S.

The Tate brothers have been allowed to leave Romania, where they were charged with human trafficking, rape and forming a criminal group to sexually exploit women. They arrived in Florida on Thursday.

More Front Page Coverage