Alabama executes inmate who killed 3 in separate workplace shootings by nitrogen gas

An Alabama man convicted of killing three people in separate workplace shootings was put to death Thursday using nitrogen gas, the second time the method has been used in the country.

Alan Eugene Miller, 59, was pronounced dead at 6:38 p.m. local time at a south Alabama prison. He shook and trembled on the gurney for about two minutes with his body at times pulling against the restraints. What followed was about six minutes of periodic gasping breaths.

“I didn’t do anything to be in here,” Miller said in his final words. 

Miller was convicted of killing three men — Lee Holdbrooks, Christopher Scott Yancy and Terry Jarvis, who he believed were gossiping about him.

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The state tried to execute him by lethal injection in 2022. Miller chose to die from nitrogen gas.

Miller was a delivery truck driver for Ferguson Enterprises when he killed the three men on Aug. 5, 1999, in the Birmingham suburb of Pelham. 

He walked into the company and fatally shot Holdbrooks, 32, and Yancy, 28, before driving 5 miles away to Post Airgas, where he had previously worked, and killing Jarvis, 39. 

“You’ve been spreading rumors about me,” Miller said before opening fire, according to a witness. 

“Tonight, justice was finally served for these three victims through the execution method elected by the inmate, Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey said in a statement. “His acts were not that of insanity, but pure evil. Three families were forever changed by his heinous crimes, and I pray that they can find comfort all these years later.”

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A jury convicted Miller after only 20 minutes of deliberation. 

Efforts to execute him in 2022 were called after officials were unable to find a vein to connect an IV to him. Miller had initially challenged the nitrogen gas protocol but dropped his lawsuit after reaching an undisclosed settlement with the state.

The method 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.

Louisiana, Mississippi and Oklahoma have also adopted the use of nitrogen gas for executions, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. 

Alabama used the method for the first, and then-only, time earlier this year to execute Kenneth Smith. At the time, United Nations experts condemned Smith’s execution, saying it “amounted to torture or other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.