Convicted Killer Becomes 2nd Alabama Inmate to Be Executed by Nitrogen Gas

Mar. 15, 2025

Alan Eugene Miller.Photo:AP Photo/Dave Martin, File

AP Photo/Dave Martin, File

An Alabama man convicted of killing three men was executed Thursday, Sept. 26, making him thesecond death row inmate in the U.S.to die using a method known as nitrogen hypoxia, according to multiple news reports.

Alan Eugene Miller, who has been on death row since 2000, was pronounced dead at 6:38 p.m. Thursday at the William C. Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, Ala., located about 50 miles northeast of Mobile, officials confirmed, according toCNN, theAssociated Press, andAL.com.

According to the AP, Miller shook and trembled on a gurney for a total of eight minutes until he became still.

Before the execution, Miller spoke his final words: “I didn’t do anything to be in here,” he said, according to AL.com. He added, “I didn’t do anything to be on death row. Thank you.”

According to astatementfrom the Alabama Attorney General’s Office, Miller was sentenced to death after being convicted of the August 1999 workplace shooting deaths of his coworkers Lee Holdbrooks, 32, Christopher Yancy, 28, and Terry Jarvis, 39, in Pelham, Ala.

Alabama, Oklahoma and Mississippi are the only states that have authorized nitrogen hypoxia for executions, theAssociated Pressreported. Alabama became the first to actually utilize the method, which involves forcing pure nitrogen into the inmate’s lungs while cutting off the oxygen supply, according to the AP.

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Alabama officials have claimed nitrogen hypoxia is “the most painless and humane method of execution known to man,” according to NPR’s reporting, though the American Veterinary Medical Association called the method “unacceptable” for all mammals except pigs.

Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall defended the method of execution in a statement shared after Miller’s death, adding that “justice has been served.”

“After two decades, Alan Miller was finally put to death for a depraved murder spree that cruelly took the lives of three innocent men: Lee Holdbrooks, Christopher Yancy, and Terry Jarvis,” Marshall said. “I ask the people of Alabama to join me in praying for the families and friends of the victims, that they might now find peace and closure.”

source: people.com