Alabama inmate sues to stop being the second person executed using NITROGEN GAS ... trends now
An Alabama inmate has filed a lawsuit against the state to avoid being the second person to be executed using nitrogen gas citing 'cruel and unusual punishment.'
Alan Eugene Miller, 57, survived an attempted execution by lethal injection in 2022 and is now set to be the second to die by nitrogen gas.
His execution date is set for September 22 at William C. Holman Correctional Facility in Escambia County - but his attorneys are fighting using the method after a murderer subjected to nitrogen gas writhed in agony for 22 minutes on January 25.
Kenneth Smith was left shaking and convulsing on a gurney as he was put to death - leading Miller's legal team to claim using death by nitrogen gas on their client would be a 'cruel and unusual punishment.'
The attorneys have also claimed that the state is trying to 'silence' miller, who spoke out against the lethal injection after the failed attempt - which they have called a violation of his free speech and due process of rights.
Alan Eugene Miller, 57, survived an attempted execution by lethal injection in 2022 and is now set to be the second to die by nitrogen gas
Kenneth Eugene Smith was sentenced to death in 1996 after admitting the murder-for-hire killing of a pastor's wife who was beaten and stabbed in 1988. On January 25, he became the first person in US history to be executed with nitrogen gas
Miller is currently being held at Holman Correctional Facility in Escambia County, Alabama
'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.
They said Alabama was unable to conduct such an execution 'without cruelly superadding pain and disgrace, and prolonging death.'
A spokeswoman for Alabama Attorney General
