Attorneys for Demetrius Terrence Frazier, a 52-year-old Alabama inmate scheduled for execution on February 6, have filed a motion to block his death by nitrogen gas. They argue the state’s method causes undue suffering, violating constitutional protections against cruel and unusual punishment.
Frazier was convicted of the 1991 rape and murder of Pauline Brown and sentenced to death by a jury in a 10-2 vote.
Concerns Over Execution Protocols
In their filing, Frazier’s attorneys requested that the state revise its execution protocol, including administering a sedative before nitrogen gas begins flowing. They cited witness accounts of Alabama’s first three executions using nitrogen gas, describing signs of apparent suffocation such as shaking and labored breathing.
“The data set for nitrogen hypoxia executions is small—three—but provides clear results: Alabama’s method does not work the way defendants claim and necessarily causes conscious suffocation,” Frazier’s attorneys wrote.
Legal and Procedural Challenges
U.S. District Judge Emily C. Marks has scheduled a hearing for July 28 to consider the request for a preliminary injunction. Alabama’s attorney general has not yet responded to the motion but previously argued that the observed movements during nitrogen executions were not indicative of suffering.
“They could be misperceived as signs of consciousness or distress,” state attorneys wrote in a December filing, suggesting the movements might result from natural physiological responses to death.
Alabama’s Use of Nitrogen Gas in Executions
Alabama became the first state to use nitrogen gas as an execution method in 2023. The process involves replacing breathable air with pure nitrogen through a respirator mask, causing death by oxygen deprivation. Witnesses to previous executions reported unsettling physical reactions, raising concerns about the method’s humanity.
Nitrogen hypoxia was authorized by Alabama in 2018, giving inmates a brief window to choose it over lethal injection. Frazier opted for nitrogen gas, though the state had not yet developed the procedures at that time.
Crime and Conviction Background
Frazier was convicted of raping and killing Pauline Brown in her Birmingham apartment in 1991. Prosecutors said Frazier, while in police custody on unrelated charges, confessed to stealing $80 from Brown before attacking her.
A jury recommended the death sentence, which a judge later upheld.