Alabama seeks to perform second execution using nitrogen hypoxia

Alabama has asked the state's Supreme Court to approve a date for death row inmate Alan Eugene Miller's execution, which would be carried out using nitrogen hypoxia. 

The request, filed Wednesday, comes just under a month after Alabama executed Kenneth Eugene Smith using nitrogen hypoxia, the first time the controversial and widely-contested death penalty method was used in the United States. Both Smith and Miller had initially been scheduled to die by lethal injection, but Smith's first execution attempt was botched and Miller's was called off.

Miller's execution was originally scheduled to take place on Sept. 22, 2022, but it was called off when officials determined they couldn't complete the execution before the midnight deadline. Miller then filed a federal lawsuit arguing against death by lethal injection, which the Alabama Department of Corrections had tried to use in the first execution attempt, according to the suit.