MONTGOMERY, Ala (WDNews) Attorneys for Demetrius Terrence Frazier, a 52-year-old Alabama inmate scheduled for execution on February 6, are seeking to halt the use of nitrogen gas in his execution. They argue that previous executions using this method caused inmates to suffer from conscious suffocation, potentially violating the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment.
Frazier was convicted for the 1991 rape and murder of Pauline Brown in Birmingham. His legal team has requested that the state modify its execution protocol to include administering a sedative before the nitrogen gas is introduced, aiming to prevent the distress observed in prior executions.
Alabama began utilizing nitrogen gas for executions in 2024, becoming the first state to do so. The process involves replacing the inmate’s breathable air with pure nitrogen, leading to death by oxygen deprivation. Witnesses to earlier executions reported inmates exhibiting convulsions and labored breathing, raising concerns about the method’s humaneness…