US to use new method for executions

Alabama is preparing to use a new, untried execution method called nitrogen hypoxia to carry out a death sentence later this month, a state attorney told.

James Houts, a deputy state attorney general, told U.S. District Judge R. Austin Huffaker Jr. that it is “very likely” the method will be available for the execution of Alan Eugene Miller, currently set for Sept. 22 by lethal injection.

The final decision on whether to use the new method is up to Corrections Commissioner John Hamm, he said, and litigation is likely.

Nitrogen hypoxia, which is supposed to cause death by replacing oxygen with nitrogen, has been authorized by Alabama and two other states for executions but never used.

Convicted in a triple killing in 1999, Miller is trying to block his execution at Holman Prison. The disclosure about the possibility of using the new method came during a court hearing on Miller’s claim that prison staff several years ago lost his paperwork. In it, he requested nitrogen as his execution method rather than lethal injection.