Alan Eugene Miller: Alabama death row inmate who hates needles likely to be first person to be executed with nitrogen gas

Alan Eugene Miller: Alabama death row inmate who hates needles likely to be first person to be executed with nitrogen gas
Alan Eugene Miller is reportedly trying to block his execution at Holman Prison (wvtm13/video screenshot)

HOLMAN, WEST VIRGINIA: Alabama could use a new method to carry out a death sentence later in September, a state attorney told a federal judge. The method, called nitrogen hypoxia, will be used for the first time to carry out an execution. James Houts, a deputy state attorney general, told US District Judge R Austin Huffaker Jr, that is it "very likely" that Alan Eugene Miller will be executed using this method. His execution is currently set for September 22 by lethal injection.

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Houts said that the final decision on whether or not the method will be used will be made by Corrections Commissioner John Hamm. He also claimed that litigation is likely. Miller was a delivery truck driver, and was convicted in the workplace shootings that killed Lee Holdbrooks, Scott Yancy and Terry Jarvis in 1999. According to prosecutors, Miller murdered Holdbrooks and Yancy at one business. He then drove to another location to shoot Jarvis dead. Each victim was shot several times.