MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Alabama is preparing to carry out the nation’s second nitrogen gas execution Thursday as disagreements continue over the humaneness of the new method of putting prisoners to death.
Alan Eugene Miller, 59, is scheduled to be executed with nitrogen gas at a south Alabama prison two years after the state previously attempted to execute him by lethal injection. Miller was convicted of killing three men — Lee Holdbrooks, Christopher Scott Yancy and Terry Jarvis — in back-to-back workplace shootings in 1999.
In January, Alabama put Kenneth Smith to death in the first nitrogen gas execution, a new method that involves placing a respirator gas mask over the inmate’s face to replace breathable air with pure nitrogen gas, causing death by lack of oxygen.
Alabama officials and advocates have argued over whether Smith suffered an unconstitutional level of pain during his execution after he shook in seizure-like spasms for more than two minutes while strapped to the gurney and then gasped for breath for several minutes.
“Alabama’s nitrogen hypoxia system is reliable and humane,” Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall said last month in announcing a lawsuit settlement agreement that allowed Miller’s execution. The state has scheduled a third nitrogen execution for November.
But death penalty opponents and advocates for other inmates facing nitrogen execution maintain that what happened with Smith shows there are problems with, or at least questions about, the method and say it should be scrutinized more before being used again.
“The fact that the state scheduled two more nitrogen executions without publicly acknowledging the failures of the first one is concerning. Going through with a second in the world nitrogen execution without reassessing the first, and under a continued veil of secrecy is not how a transparent government operates,” John Palombi, an attorney with the Federal Defenders Program who is representing another inmate facing nitrogen execution in November, wrote in an email.
Death penalty opponents delivered petitions Wednesday asking Gov. Kay Ivey to halt the execution. Miller is one of five inmates scheduled to be put to death in the span of one week, an unusually high number that defies a yearslong trend of decline in the use of the death penalty in the U.S.
Miller, a delivery truck driver, was convicted of capital murder for the shootings that claimed three lives and shocked the city of Pelham, a suburban city just south of Birmingham.
The Aug. 5, 1999, workday had begun normally, a witness testified, until Miller showed up armed with a handgun saying he was “tired of people starting rumors on me.”
Police say that early that morning Miller entered Ferguson Enterprises and shot and killed two co-workers: Holdbrooks, 32, and Yancy, 28. He then drove 5 miles (8 kilometers) away to Post Airgas, where he had previously worked, and shot Jarvis, 39.
All three men were shot multiple times. A prosecutor told jurors at the 2000 trial that the men "are not just murdered, they are executed.”
Miller had initially pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity but later withdrew the plea. A psychiatrist hired by the defense said that Miller was mentally ill but his condition wasn’t severe enough to use as a basis for an insanity defense, according to court documents. Jurors convicted Miller after 20 minutes of deliberation and voted he receive the death penalty.
In 2022, the state called off the previous attempt to execute Miller after being unable to connect an IV line to the 351-pound (159-kilogram) inmate. The state and Miller agreed that any other execution attempt would be by nitrogen gas.
The state might be making minor adjustments to execution procedures. Miller had initially challenged the nitrogen gas execution plans, citing witness descriptions of what happened to Smith. But he dropped the lawsuit after reaching a settlement last month with the state.
Court records did not disclose the terms of the agreement, but Miller had suggested several changes to the state’s nitrogen gas protocol. Those included using medical grade nitrogen and a sedative beforehand. Will Califf, a spokesperson for the state attorney general, said last month that he could not confirm whether the state had agreed to make changes to execution procedures.
Mara E. Klebaner, an attorney representing Miller, said last month that he “entered into a settlement on favorable terms to protect his constitutional right to be free from cruel and unusual punishments.”
Abraham Bonowitz, executive director of Death Penalty Action, and other death penalty opponents hold a demonstration outside the Alabama Capitol in Montgomery, Ala., Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2024, asking the state to call off the scheduled execution of Alan Miller in what would be the nation's second execution using nitrogen gas. (AP Photo/Kim Chandler)
FILE - Officials escort murder suspect Alan Eugene Miller away from the Pelham City Jail in Alabama, Aug. 5, 1999. (AP Photo/Dave Martin, File)
FILE - This undated photograph provided by the Alabama Department of Corrections shows inmate Alan Eugene Miller, who was convicted of capital murder in a workplace shooting rampage that killed three men in 1999. (Alabama Department of Corrections via AP, File)
Nineteen Syrian refugees and a Lebanese national were killed in northeast Lebanon after an Israeli airstrike destroyed a building housing workers, Lebanon’s Health Ministry said Thursday.
State-run National News Agency earlier quoted the mayor of the village of Younine as saying that the bodies of 23 Syrian citizens were pulled out from under the rubble. It added that four other Syrians and four Lebanese were wounded in the same airstrike late Wednesday in the village.
Also Thursday, the health ministry said two people were killed and 15 were wounded after an Israeli airstrike hit an apartment building in a southern suburb of Beirut. The Israel Defense Force said the strike killed a Hezbollah drone commander, Mohammed Hussein Surour.
The strikes came after Israel's military chief said Wednesday that the country was preparing for a possible ground operation in Lebanon as Hezbollah launched dozens of rockets into Israel.
Late Wednesday, the United States, France and other allies jointly called for an “immediate” 21-day cease-fire to allow for negotiations as fears grow that the violent escalation in recent days — following 11 months of cross-border exchange of fire — could grow into an all-out war.
The United Nations says over 90,000 people have been displaced by five days of Israeli strikes on Lebanon, bringing the total to 200,000 people who have been displaced in Lebanon since Hezbollah began firing rockets into northern Israel in support of Hamas after it stormed into Israel, sparking the Israel-Hamas war.
Here’s the latest:
TEL AVIV, Israel — The Israel Defense Force says an airstrike on Beirut has killed a Hezbollah drone commander.
Israel's military said Thursday that its fighter jets attacked Beirut on Thursday and killed Mohammed Hussein Surour, who it described as a “commander of Hezbollah’s aerial unit."
It said Surour “promoted, directed and commanded many aerial terrorist attacks, including drone attacks, cruise missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles aimed at Israel.”
Hezbollah has not commented on the claim.
BEIRUT — Lebanon's Health Ministry says two people were killed and 15 were wounded after an airstrike hit an apartment building in a southern suburb of Beirut.
The health ministry said those wounded included a woman who was in critical condition.
Al-Manar TV, the TV station of Lebanon’s Hezbollah group, reported earlier Thursday that an Israeli airstrike caused an explosion on an apartment building in south Beirut, but did not give further details.
The Israeli military said it carried out a “targeted strike” south of Beirut. It said more details will be released later.
The strike came two days after a similar attack killed a senior Hezbollah military commander with the group’s missile unit.
New York — Secretary of State Antony Blinken says the world is united in calling for a cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah and will be seeking approval from Israeli officials after the release of a proposal for a temporary 21-day halt in fighting.
“It is now the G7 countries, the European Union, the leading Arab countries, everyone speaking with one clear voice about the need to get that cease-fire in the north,” Blinken said in an interview with MSNBC on Thursday before he met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s top strategy advisor, Ron Dermer, in New York.
Netanyahu himself is en route to New York where he will speak on Friday at the UN General Assembly. His office said the cease-fire call is only a proposal and that Israel would continue to defend its land and people from attacks by Hezbollah from Lebanese territory.
“I can’t speak for him,” Blinken said of Netanyahu. “I can just say that the world is speaking clearly for virtually all of the key countries in Europe and in the region on the need for the ceasefire."
“What we’re saying, what the world is saying, is very clear, and we’ll be looking to work with the Israelis and all the parties throughout the rest of the day,” he added.
BEIRUT — Syrian pro-government media outlets say Israel’s air force has carried out airstrikes along the Lebanon-Syria border, wounding five people and destroying a bridge that links the countries.
Syria’s Sham FM radio station and Dama Post reported that the airstrike wounded five people and destroyed the bridge near the Matraba border crossing on the Lebanese side in the northeastern Hermel region.
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported several Israeli airstrikes in Hermel.
The Israeli military said it attacked infrastructure used to transfer weapons from Syria to Hezbollah in Lebanon.
TEL AVIV, Israel — Families of Israeli hostages still held in Gaza for nearly a year are urging Israel to ensure than any possible cease-fire deal with Hezbollah includes provisions for the war in Gaza.
Gil Dickmann, whose cousin, Carmel Gat, was kidnapped and was one of six Israelis killed in Hamas tunnels in August, said the families of the hostages are feeling forgotten as attention shifts to the northern front.
“We know that these things are connected to each other, the northern part and the southern part, they’re all part of the same large situation in which we are at from October 7th on. And we’re very worried that if we don’t make the right decisions now, we will miss this amazing opportunity to get the hostages out,” Dickmann said on Thursday.
He slammed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for missing multiple opportunities to free his cousin over the past 11 months and begged him to agree to a cease-fire with both Hezbollah and Hamas that would include provisions for the hostages.
Dickmann’s sister-in-law, Yarden Roman-Gat, was released in the week-long cease-fire deal last November, along with nearly 100 other hostages.
Hamas-led militants abducted some 250 people during their Oct. 7 attack in Israel in which some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed. More than 41,000 Palestinians have been killed in the war in Gaza since then.
TEL AVIV, Israel — The office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the cease-fire called on by the United States, France and other allies is only a proposal, and that Netanyahu, who is on a flight en route to the United States for the United Nations General Assembly, has not responded to it.
The U.S. and its allies jointly called Wednesday for an immediate 21-day cease-fire to allow for negotiations in the escalating conflict between Israel and Hezbollah that has killed more than 600 people in Lebanon in recent days.
Israel’s Foreign Minister Israel Katz, who is the acting prime minister during Netanyahu’s trip abroad, said there will be no cease-fire in the north, vowing to continue the fighting in the north “with full force until victory” and returning the tens of thousands of Israeli citizens evacuated from their homes.
Netanyahu's office added that the Israeli military was continuing to strike Hezbollah targets in Lebanon.
BEIRUT — An Israeli airstrike on a village in northeast Lebanon destroyed a building housing Syrian workers, killing 23 of them and wounding another eight people.
State-run National News Agency quoted the village’s mayor Ali Kassas as saying that the bodies of 23 Syrian citizens were pulled out from under the rubble, adding that four other Syrians and four Lebanese were wounded in the same airstrike late Wednesday in the village of Younine, just north of the ancient city of Baalbek in Lebanon’s eastern Bekaa Valley that borders Syria.
The Lebanese Red Cross said it evacuated the bodies of nine people following the airstrike. Others were taken by Hezbollah’s paramedic arm as well as the Lebanese Civil Defense, NNA said.
A country of about 6 million people, Lebanon hosts nearly 780,000 registered Syrian refugees and hundreds of thousands who are unregistered — the world’s highest refugee population per capita.
TEL AVIV, Israel — The Israeli military says it struck 75 sites overnight across southern and eastern Lebanon, part of a punishing air campaign in response to Hezbollah rocket fire.
The military said Thursday it was targeting Hezbollah military infrastructure, including weapons storage facilities and rocket launchers. Around half a dozen Israelis have been wounded in the latest escalation.
Israel strikes have killed more than 630 people in Lebanon since Monday, about a quarter of them women and children. Hezbollah has fired hundreds of projectiles towards Israel over the past week, including a surface-to-surface missile toward Tel Aviv that was intercepted Wednesday.
The Israeli military said around 45 projectiles were fired from Lebanon on Thursday, all of them either intercepted or falling in open areas. There were no reports of casualties or damage.
Hezbollah began firing rockets into Israel after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack ignited the war in Gaza, hoping to pin down Israeli forces. Both Hezbollah and Hamas are close allies of Iran.
The fighting has driven tens of thousands of people from their homes on both sides of the border. Israel has vowed to do whatever is necessary to allow its citizens to return, and has moved thousands of troops to the northern border in preparation for what could be a ground campaign into southern Lebanon.
The United States, France and other allies jointly called for an “immediate” 21-day cease-fire in the conflict to “provide space for diplomacy” as fears grow that the violence could become an all-out war between Israel and Hezbollah, which would further destabilize a region already shaken by the war in Gaza.
NICOSIA, Cyprus — Britain says it’s sending $6.7 million worth of humanitarian assistance, including medical supplies, hygiene kits and fuel to Lebanon to support the civilian population there as fighting forces thousands to flee their homes.
The United Kingdom said in a statement that the United Nations agency for children, UNICEF, will distribute the supplies, which will also help aid workers better deal with urgent health and nutrition needs.
The U.K. earlier announced that 700 troops, including Border Force and Foreign Office officials, would be deployed to a British military base in Cyprus to prepare for possible evacuations of British citizens from the region as fighting could potentially escalate.
An online portal and phone line have been reopened for British nationals in Lebanon to register their presence.
Cyprus is situated approximately 210 kilometers (130 miles) west of the Lebanese capital. The east Mediterranean island nation served as a waystation for the repatriation of approximately 60,000 foreign nationals who where evacuated from Lebanon during the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war.
Britain’s Minister of State for Development, Women and Equalities, Anneliese Dodds, said the U.K. will continue to support Lebanese people as it urges British nationals to leave the country.
British navy ships RFA Mounts Bay and the HMS Duncan were already in the eastern Mediterranean on Thursday, while the Royal Air Force has aircraft and transport helicopters on standby to provide support if needed.
The United States, France and other allies called Wednesday for an “immediate” 21-day cease-fire to allow for negotiations in the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah that has killed more than 600 people in Lebanon in recent days.
The joint statement, negotiated on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, says the recent fighting is “intolerable and presents an unacceptable risk of a broader regional escalation.”
“We call for an immediate 21-day cease-fire across the Lebanon-Israel border to provide space for diplomacy,” the statement reads. “We call on all parties, including the Governments of Israel and Lebanon, to endorse the temporary cease-fire immediately.”
The signatories include the United States, Australia, Canada, the European Union, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Qatar.
This version revises the number of people killed in the Lebanese village of Younine to 19, in line with information from the Health Ministry
An Israeli Air Force Black Hawk helicopter flies over the Mediterranean Sea near the northern Israeli city of Kiryat Yam, Thursday, Sept. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Baz Ratner)
Lebanon's Prime Minister Najib Mikati speaks during a meeting of the Security Council, Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2024, at U.N. headquarters. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)
A Syrian boy fleeing the war in Lebanon with his family, arrives at the Syrian-Lebanese border crossing in Jdeidet Yabous, Syria, Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Omar Sanadiki)
Smoke rises after an explosion during an Israeli military operation in the West Bank Jenin refugee camp, Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)
An Israeli armoured vehicle moves on a street during a military operation in the West Bank city of Jenin, Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2024.(AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)
An emergency worker cuts concrete blocks as he searches for survivors at the scene of an Israeli airstrike in the town of Maisara, north of Beirut, Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
Hezbollah members carry the coffins of Hezbollah commanders Ibrahim Kobeisi, seen in the picture left, and Hussein Ezzedine, right, during their funeral procession in Beirut's southern suburb, Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
Smoke rises from an Israeli airstrike north of Beirut, in the village of Ras Osta, Byblos district, seen from Maaysrah, Lebanon, Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
