Alabama has authorized the execution of a second inmate by nitrogen gas, months after the state became the first state to put a person to death with the previously untested method, the Associated Press reports. But the condemned inmate, Alan Eugene Miller, has an ongoing federal lawsuit challenging the execution method as a violation of the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment, citing witness descriptions of Smith’s death.
The Alabama Supreme Court on Thursday granted the state attorney general’s request for an execution date for Miller, who survived a 2022 lethal injection attempt. The state’s governor will set the exact date of the execution for Miller, who was convicted of killing three men during a 1999 workplace shooting. In January, Alabama used nitrogen gas to execute Kenneth Smith. Smith shook and convulsed in seizure-like movements for several minutes on the death chamber gurney as he was put to death on Jan. 25.