Alabama has scheduled its second execution of a death row prisoner using the novel technique of nitrogen gas, brushing aside objections that the procedure is a form of cruel and unusual punishment banned under the US constitution.
Barring last-minute judicial moves, Alan Miller, 59, will be put to his death on 26 September, after an execution date was set on Thursday by the state’s Republican governor Kay Ivey.
In September 2022, he was escorted into the death chamber at Holman correctional facility in southern Alabama and put through what his lawyers said was physical and mental torture.
He was strapped to the gurney for two hours while members of the execution team pierced his arms, hands and feet with needles in search of a vein through which to inject lethal drugs.
Failing to achieve a line, the team raised the gurney into the vertical position and left Miller suspended as on a crucifix for about 20 minutes, court documents show.
Dissenting, Justice Sonia Sotomayor accused Alabama of using the prisoner as a guinea pig for nitrogen, adding: “The world is watching.”
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I'd say he deserves to be set free now, or at least not be executed. They had their chance and they fucked it up. This is veering solidly into cruel and unusual territory.