An Alabama inmate has shared their haunting final words before becoming the second person to be put to death using a controversial method.
Alan Eugene Miller, 59, was pronounced dead at 6.38PM local time at the William C. Holman Correctional Facility, on Thursday (September 26), per ABC News.
The prisoner, who was a former delivery driver, was sentenced to death for the August 5, 1999 shootings that claimed the lives of Lee Holdbrooks, Christopher Scott Yancy, and Terry Jarvis.
Miller fatally shot two co-workers: Holdbrooks, 32, and Yancy, 28, at Ferguson Enterprises in Pelham, Alabama before driving to Post Airgas, where he had previously worked, and killed Jarvis, 39. According to court documents, he believed they were "spreading rumors" about him, per CNN.
The state had previously attempted to execute the 59-year-old by lethal injection in 2022 but plans had changed after the executioner had trouble inserting an intravenous line to administer the fatal drugs, per The New York Post.
Two years later, the Alabama State Supreme Court agreed to let the Department of Corrections carry out Miller's death sentence by the controversial nitrogen gas method, which is when oxygen in the body is replaced with a high concentration of nitrogen, causing death.
The inmate was visited by three attorneys, his brother, two sisters, a brother-in-law, a spiritual advisor, and a friend before his execution. His last meal was hamburger steak, a baked potato, and French fries.
Before prison officials administered the flow of nitrogen, Miller reportedly spoke his final words, which were: “I didn’t do anything to be in here...I didn’t do anything to be on death row,” per an AL.com reporter who witnessed his final moments.
He then reportedly moved his fingers on the gurney as the gas began to flow, and lifted his head several times. He then proceeded to shake for about two minutes followed by six minutes of gasping on and off.
Miller has now become the second prisoner in Alabama to be executed by the contentious method, which has also been approved in two other states: Mississippi, and Oklahoma.
The first death row inmate was Kenneth Eugene Smith, whose execution took 22 minutes after the nitrogen gas was first administered. A witness spoke out about the haunting event and said they had never seen an execution unfold like Smith's did.
"I've been to four previous executions and I've never seen a condemned inmate thrash in the way that Kenneth Smith reacted to the nitrogen gas," Lee Hedgepeth told BBC. "Kenny just began to gasp for air repeatedly and the execution took about 25 minutes total."
Miller is also the fifth person in the US to be executed in six days.
South Carolina killed Khalil Divine Black Sun Allah in its first execution in 13 years, and on Tuesday (September 24), Texas killed Travis Mullis and Missouri put to death Marcellus Williams. Also on Thursday, Oklahoma executed Emmanuel Littlejohn.
“Tonight, justice was finally served for these three victims through the execution method elected by the inmate," Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey said in a statement after Miller's execution. “His acts were not that of insanity, but pure evil. Three families were forever changed by his heinous crimes, and I pray that they can find comfort all these years later."
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