Alabama carries out second nitrogen gas execution in the United States

The US state of Alabama executed Alan Eugene Miller, the second American to be put to death by nitrogen inhalation.

Miller, 59, was sentenced to death for the consecutive workplace murders of Lee Holdbrooks, Christopher Scott Yancy and Terry Lee Jarvis in 1999.

His execution is the fifth in the United States in a week – the largest use of capital punishment in more than two decades.

Also Thursday, Emmanuel Littlejohn received a lethal injection in Oklahoma after the state’s governor rejected a last-minute request for clemency.

Miller’s execution is the 18th so far this year – with seven more planned over the remaining three months of 2024.

It is also the 1,600th execution in the United States since the nation’s highest court reinstated the death penalty in 1976, according to the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC).

Freddie Owens was executed last Friday in South Carolina, while Tuesday saw the executions of Marcellus Williams in Missouri and Travis Mullis in Texas.

DPIC data also indicates that July 2003 was the last time such a large number of inmates were sentenced to death within a seven-day period.

Experts have told US media that the timing was a mere coincidence, resulting from changes in the execution schedule following botched executions and legal challenges.

For years, executions declined across the country. According to DPIC, thirty-five states have abolished or not used the death penalty over the past decade.

But the number of executions has increased over the past three years, with Texas, Missouri, Alabama and Florida leading the way.

Last year, 24 people were put to death, compared to 18 in 2022 and 11 in 2021.

Miller, 59, was sentenced to death for the consecutive workplace murders of Holdbrooks, Yancy and Jarvis in 1999.

Originally scheduled to die in 2022, he received a reprieve when authorities struggled to connect an intravenous line that would administer his lethal injection.

Earlier this year, the Alabama State Supreme Court authorized Miller’s execution by nitrogen hypoxia, a method that involves an inmate inhaling nitrogen gas through a tight-fitting mask until his body was deprived of oxygen.

Alabama is one of three states to sanction this form of capital punishment and carried out its first execution of this type last January.

The nitrogen-induced murder of Kenneth Eugene Smith was described by the state attorney general as “textbook,” but critics said it seemed painful and inhumane.

“In Alabama, we will not deny justice to the victims of heinous murders,” Attorney General Steve Marshall said in a statement.

“Tonight, despite disinformation campaigns by political activists, foreign lawyers and biased media, the state has proven once again that nitrogen hypoxia is both humane and effective.”

Littlejohn, 52, was sentenced to death for his role in a 1992 robbery gone wrong that ended in the murder of convenience store owner Kenneth Meers.

Littlejohn and his accomplice, Glenn Bethany, were charged and convicted in the incident, but Littlejohn’s lawyers argued that he was not the one who fired the fatal shot and that jurors were confused about their options of sentencing.

Littlejohn was 20 years old at the time of the crime and, according to his lawyers, murder resulting from a robbery should not carry the death penalty.

Two jurors at the 1994 sentencing and 2000 resentencing provided sworn statements as part of his recent clemency request, saying they did not believe he should be put to death.

But prosecutors said two teenage witnesses claimed it was Littlejohn, not Bethany, who pulled the trigger and killed Meers.

The Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board voted 3-2 last month to spare Littlejohn’s life and commute his sentence to life in prison without parole.

Governor Kevin Stitt refused to grant the reprieve, saying: “A jury found him guilty and sentenced him to death. As a law and order governor, I find it difficult to unilaterally reverse this decision.

Littlejohn’s mother, daughter, and spiritual advisor all witnessed his execution by lethal injection.