Alabama inmate asks court to block nitrogen gas execution
MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Lawyers for an Alabama inmate expected to be the fourth person put to death with nitrogen gas on Wednesday asked a federal judge to block the execution, arguing that the first three inmates showed signs of asphyxiation as the gas flowed .
Demetrius Terrence Frazier, 52, will be executed on February 6 for the 1991 murder and rape of Pauline Brown. His lawyers asked a judge in a court filing Wednesday to block the execution unless the state makes changes to the protocol, such as giving a sedative before the gas starts flowing. The court cited witness descriptions of the state’s first three executions involving nitrogen gas.
“The data set for nitrogen hypoxia executions is small — three — but yields clear results: Alabama’s method does not work in the way defendants claim and necessarily causes conscious asphyxia, in violation of the Eighth Amendment,” Frazier’s attorneys wrote in the court hearing.
Last year, Alabama became the first state to carry out an execution with nitrogen gas. Last year, three prisoners were put to death using the new method. The method involves placing a gas mask over the person’s face to replace the inhaled air with pure nitrogen gas, which results in death from lack of oxygen.
Media witnessesincluding The Associated Press, described how the men were shaking on the stretcher for the first minutes of their execution, followed by several minutes of periodic, labored breathing with long pauses in between.
The Alabama attorney general’s office has not yet filed a response to the request to block the execution. The state previously asked a federal judge to dismiss Frazier’s lawsuit over the execution method, arguing that the prisoners’ movements were not a sign of suffering.
“He is never confronted with more likely causes of movement, including voluntary resistance or involuntary movements associated with dying, which could be misconstrued as signs of consciousness or fear,” state attorneys wrote in a Christmas Eve court filing.
Lethal injection remains the primary method of execution in Alabama.
Alabama became the third state to authorize the use of nitrogen gas to execute prisoners. Alabama gave prisoners a short period to choose their preferred method of execution. Frazier was among the inmates who preferred nitrogen gas as their method of execution, but at the time the state had not yet developed procedures for using the gas to carry out an execution.
Frazier was convicted of killing Brown in her Birmingham apartment. Prosecutors said that while in police custody in Detroit on an unrelated charge, Frazier confessed to raping and shooting Brown after stealing about $80 from her purse. A jury voted 10-2 that he should receive the death penalty. A judge sentenced him to death.