Alabama settles lawsuit with death row inmate set to become second executed by nitrogen gas
CNN
The office of Alabama’s attorney general has settled a federal lawsuit filed by death row inmate Alan Miller over the state’s plan for him to become the second known person in the nation to be executed using nitrogen gas.
The office of Alabama’s attorney general has settled a federal lawsuit filed by death row inmate Alan Miller over the state’s plan for him to become the second known person in the nation to be executed using nitrogen gas. The terms of the settlement are confidential and the inmate’s lawsuit was dismissed with prejudice, meaning it cannot be brought again, court records show. Miller’s execution is set for some time between September 26 and 27. Miller had challenged the state’s nitrogen hypoxia protocol, claiming it could cause him undue suffering, thus violating his Eighth Amendment protections against cruel and unusual punishment. His attorneys did not immediately respond to CNN’s request for comment about the settlement. Republican Attorney General Steve Marshall, meanwhile, touted the settlement as proof Alabama’s nitrogen gas execution method – which was used for the first and only time earlier this year – is constitutional. It involves forcing an inmate to inhale 100% nitrogen gas, depriving him of the oxygen needed to survive. “The resolution of this case confirms that Alabama’s nitrogen hypoxia system is reliable and humane,” Marshall said in a Monday news release. Miller’s lawsuit, he said, was “based on media speculation” the first person known to have been executed in the US by nitrogen gas, Kenneth Smith, “suffered cruel and unusual punishment” when he was put to death in January. “(B)ut what the State demonstrated to Miller’s legal team undermined that false narrative,” Marshall said.
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