Alabama wants nitrogen hypoxia for executions in death sentences. What is it?

Alabama is working on finalising a protocol for using nitrogen hypoxia for executing death sentences, a deputy state attorney general told the court.

Alabama is readying a new, untried execution method to carry out its death sentences- nitrogen hypoxia, a state attorney told a federal judge on Monday. The method was approved by the state in 2018 but it has not yet been used or tested.

A deputy state attorney general told a U.S. district judge that it is 'very likely' the method will be available for the execution of Alan Eugene Miller. Alan Eugene Miller, was convicted of killing three men in a workplace shooting in 1999.

Miller is attempting to block his execution, scheduled for September 22, at Holman Prison. The disclosure of the possibility of using the new method for executing death sentences came to the fore during a court hearing. Alan Eugene Miller claimed that prison staff lost his paperwork several years ago. In it, he requested nitrogen as his execution method rather than lethal injection.

He further said that he 'disliked' needles because of painful attempts at drawing blood, adding that nitrogen gas seemed better than lethal injection.

However, a final decision on whether to use this new method or not is up to Corrections Commissioner John Hamm, James Houts, a deputy state attorney general said.

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Nitrogen hypoxia is supposed to cause death by replacing oxygen with nitrogen. In this proposed execution method, death would be caused by forcing the inmate to breathe only nitrogen, depriving his or her body of oxygen causing asphyxiation.