An Alabama death row inmate gave a chilling eight-word final statement just before his controversial execution after his first attempt failed.
Alan Eugene Miller, 59, on Thursday became the second person to die from asphyxiation by nitrogen gas, after killing three people in back-to-back workplace shootings in 1999.
“I didn’t do anything to be here,” he said as he was strapped to a stretcher in a jail in Atmore, on the Florida border.
“I didn’t do anything to end up on death row,” Miller clarified before asking his family members to “take care” of someone. according to AL.com.
Alabama corrections officials then pumped nitrogen gas into a mask that covered Miller’s face from his forehead to his chin, forcing him to shake and shake on the gurney for about two minutes.
Alan Eugene Miller, 59, became the second person to die Thursday from nitrogen gas asphyxiation
His left hand trembled and clenched into a fist several times, and he was forced to lift his head from the stretcher.
That was followed by about six minutes of periodic gasping breathing before he fell silent.
Miller was eventually pronounced dead around 6:38 p.m., John Hamm, commissioner of the Alabama Department of Corrections, said at a subsequent news conference, noting that the two minutes of shaking were expected.
“There will be involuntary body movements because the body is running out of oxygen, so we didn’t expect that,” Hamm said.
“Everything went according to plan and according to our protocol, so it went exactly as we planned.”
But Hamm later admitted that a corrections officer had to adjust the inmate’s mask before the gas started flowing.
“That’s just to make sure the mask is on,” he said.
The execution was the second to use the new method, which Alabama first used in January when Kenneth Smith was put to death.
The method involves placing a gas mask over the prisoner’s face to replace the inhaled air with pure nitrogen gas, which results in death from lack of oxygen.
He was arrested in August 1999 after shooting dead three of his former colleagues
Miller had selected the option to die by asphyxiation in a 2018 form distributed to death row inmates in Alabama, AL.com reports.
But the state was still unwilling to use nitrogen hypoxia as a form of execution when officials obtained a warrant for Miller’s execution on September 22, opting instead to execute him by lethal injection.
That effort was subsequently called off when state officials said they could not access Miller’s veins before the execution order expired at midnight.
The inmate later filed a lawsuit against the prison, claiming that prison staff poked him for 90 minutes while he tried to turn on an IV and left him hanging vertically while he was strapped to a gurney. reports the Montgomery Advisor.
Prosecutors ultimately settled the case and agreed not to execute Miller using any method other than nitrogen hypoxia.
The execution method was finally used in Smith’s execution earlier this year, with the inmate shaking, writhing and thrashing up and down on the gurney for two minutes after nitrogen gas began filling his mask.
That was followed by five to seven minutes of heavy breathing and light panting.
Miller was previously scheduled to be executed by lethal injection in 2022
In the aftermath, Miller challenged the state’s nitrogen hypoxia protocol, claiming it could cause him unnecessary suffering, violating his Eighth Amendment protections against cruel and unusual punishment.
His lawyers argued that the state did not provide any evidence to support their claims that Smith held his breath and instead “hung up”[s] their hat solely on the self-serving testimony of a witness who claims to have deprived Smith of oxygen levels nearly seven months after the execution.”
The witness, a captain of the execution team, did not write down the oxygen levels or tell anyone about the oxygen levels the night of the execution, Miller’s attorneys argued, according to AL.com.
Attorney General Steve Marshall touted a settlement with Miller as evidence that Alabama’s nitrogen gas execution method is constitutional
“In fact, the evidence in the record suggests that the witness could not even see the levels from his position in the execution chamber, and undermines the execution log of Mr. Smith’s execution… [the state’s] whole argument,” they argued.
Miller also said in a statement that he was concerned the state would fail to secure his gas mask because they are “incompetent.”
“I don’t think any of you know what you’re doing,” he told a prosecutor. And these guys sometimes can’t even open a cell door.’
The lawsuit was ultimately settled last month and the terms of the settlement were confidential.
But Attorney General Steve Marshall touted the settlement as proof that Alabama’s nitrogen gas execution method is constitutional.
“The resolution of this case confirms that Alabama’s nitrogen hypoxia system is reliable and humane,” he said at the time.
Then, after the execution on Thursday, Marshall said, “Tonight, despite disinformation campaigns from political activists, out-of-state lawyers and biased media, the state has once again proven that nitrogen hypoxia is both humane and effective.
“Miller’s execution went as expected.”
Miller shot each of the victims – Lee Holdbrooks, 32, Scott Yancy, 28, and Terry Lee Jarvis, 39 – multiple times before he was arrested
Miller, a truck driver, was convicted of murder in 2000 for the Aug. 5, 1999, shootings that claimed three lives and shocked the city of Pelham, a suburb just south of Birmingham.
He had worked with each of the three victims – Lee Holdbrooks, 32, Scott Yancy, 28, and Terry Lee Jarvis, 39 – and accused them of spreading rumors about him.
Police say he entered Ferguson Enterprises and fatally shot Yancy three times, leaving him unable to move after the first shot “passed through his groin and into his spine, paralyzing him.”
Holdbrooks was also shot about six times and tried to crawl through a hallway to escape before Miller shot him in the head “leaving him to die in a pool of blood,” according to court documents. obtained by CNN.
Miller then went to his previous employer Post Airgas, where Jarvis worked.
He walked in and said, “Hey, I hear you’re spreading rumors about me.”
Jarvis responded that he had not spread rumors, a witness said, but moments later Miller shot Jarvis “a number of times.”
He was later captured on the highway with a Glock pistol with one bullet in the chamber and 11 bullets in an ammunition magazine, police said.
Miller had initially pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, but later withdrew the plea.
A psychiatrist hired by the defense said Miller was mentally ill, but his condition was not serious enough to serve as a basis for an insanity defense, court records show.
Jurors convicted Miller after 20 minutes of deliberation, recommending by a 10-2 vote that he receive the death penalty.
“Just as Alan Miller cowardly fled after maliciously committing three calculated murders in 1999, he spent 20 years trying to escape justice,” Gov. Kay Ivey said in a statement Thursday.
“Tonight, justice was finally served for these three victims through the execution method chosen by the inmate.
“His actions were not insane, but purely evil,” the governor said. “Three families were forever changed by his horrific crimes and I pray they can find comfort all these years later.”
Relatives of the three victims did not witness the execution and did not provide a statement to be read to reporters, state officials said.
