Entries tagged with “Nitrogen hypoxia

Executions

Botched Executions

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Lethal Injection

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Nov 30, 2022

Alabama Drops Lethal Injection for Alan Miller, But May Attempt Execution With Nitrogen Gas

Alabama offi­cials have agreed not to make a sec­ond attempt to exe­cute Alan Miller by lethal injec­tion after the state had to call off his September 22, 2022 exe­cu­tion because of the fail­ure to estab­lish an IV line. If the state seeks to exe­cute Miller in the future, it will use nitro­gen hypox­ia, a method that has nev­er been used for an exe­cu­tion. In the months since Miller’s exe­cu­tion attempt, Alabama also attempt­ed and failed to exe­cute Kenneth Smith. In response to the series of prob­lems, Governor Kay Ivey paused…

Policy Issues

Human Rights

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Methods of Execution

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Lethal Injection

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Sep 21, 2022

Alabama Federal Court Issues Injunction Halting Execution of Alan Miller

A fed­er­al dis­trict court issued an order on September 19, 2022 to halt the sched­uled September 22, 2022 exe­cu­tion of Alabama death-row pris­on­er Alan Miller by any method oth­er than nitro­gen hypox­ia,” lead­ing to a series of last-minute appeals by Alabama pros­e­cu­tors and an after-hours exe­cu­tion-night rul­ing by the U.S. Supreme Court to let the exe­cu­tion go for­ward. Alabama sub­se­quent­ly called off the exe­cu­tion when it became appar­ent more than two hours lat­er that exe­cu­tion per­son­nel would be unable to suc­cess­ful­ly set an IV line before the mid­night expi­ra­tion of Miller’s…

Executions

Methods of Execution

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Jun 15, 2021

Alabama Readies Death Chamber for Nitrogen Hypoxia Executions

As South Carolina and Arizona pre­pare to resume exe­cu­tions using grue­some meth­ods of the past, Alabama pros­e­cu­tors say the state is near­ly ready to per­form exe­cu­tions using a new, untest­ed method, nitro­gen hypoxia.

Policy Issues

Secrecy

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Methods of Execution

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Lethal Injection

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Aug 11, 2021

Alabama, Mississippi Take Preparatory Steps to Resume Executions

Alabama and Mississippi have under­tak­en prepara­to­ry steps towards resum­ing exe­cu­tions in the face of con­tin­u­ing legal chal­lenges to their meth­ods of execution.

Policy Issues

Intellectual Disability

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United States Supreme Court

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Methods of Execution

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Jan 28, 2022

Divided Supreme Court Vacates Injunction, Permits Alabama to Execute Intellectually Disabled Prisoner

A divid­ed U.S. Supreme Court vot­ed 5 – 4 on January 27, 2022 to allow Alabama to exe­cute an intel­lec­tu­al­ly dis­abled death-row pris­on­er, vacat­ing an injunc­tion issued by a fed­er­al dis­trict court on January 7 and unan­i­mous­ly upheld by a pan­el of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit on January 26.

Executions

Botched Executions

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Lethal Injection

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Sep 26, 2022

Federal Court Orders Alabama to Preserve Evidence of Botched Attempted Execution of Alan Miller

A fed­er­al dis­trict court has ordered Alabama state offi­cials to pre­serve evi­dence relat­ed to the state’s failed attempt to exe­cute death-row pris­on­er Alan Miller on September 22, 2022. The botched exe­cu­tion attempt, Alabama’s third since 2018, came after a divid­ed U.S. Supreme Court issued an after-hours exe­cu­tion-night order set­ting aside with­out opin­ion an injunc­tion that had barred the state from exe­cut­ing Miller by any method oth­er than nitro­gen hypox­ia.” Prison offi­cials then unsuc­cess­ful­ly attempt­ed as many as 18 times to estab­lish an intra­venous exe­cu­tion line before call­ing off the execution…