Alabama’s deputy attorney general said the state is ready to introduce a new, never-tried method called “nitrogen culling” later this month, according to NBC.
James Hotts, deputy state attorney general, told US District Judge R Austin Havecker Jr that it was “quite likely” that the method would be available to execute Alan Eugene Miller, currently scheduled for September 22 by lethal injection, and added that the final decision on whether to use the new method was up to the Corrections Commissioner. John Hamm.
The “nitrogen culling” that is supposed to cause death by replacing oxygen with nitrogen, is authorized by Alabama and two other states for culling but has never been used.
Miller was convicted in 1999 of triple murder, and during a court hearing Miller claimed that prison staff had lost his papers several years earlier, noting that the missing documents had asked for nitrogen as a method of execution rather than lethal injection.
Miller’s attorney, Mara Klipaner, said the legal team needed more information regarding the nitrogen process and would not consent to its blind use, and said Miller’s attorneys did not want it to be a test of an untested execution method.
Miller, a delivery truck driver, was convicted of the workplace shooting that killed Lee Holdbrooks, Scott Yancey and Terry Jarvis in a Birmingham suburb.
Testimonies showed that Miller was delusional and believed that men were spreading rumors regarding him, including that he was gay, and a defensive psychiatrist said that Miller had severe mental illness but that his condition was not bad enough to be used as a basis for a defense under state law.
