Alabama’s Attorney General announced on Monday that the state has settled a dispute with inmate Alan Miller, who was convicted of killing three men, regarding his upcoming nitrogen gas execution scheduled for September. The confidential settlement agreement was reached to end litigation filed by Miller, citing concerns over witness descriptions of the previous nitrogen gas execution of Kenneth Smith in January, which Miller sought to block for his own case.
The terms of the agreement were not disclosed in the court records. Miller had proposed adjustments to the state’s nitrogen gas protocol, including the use of medical-grade nitrogen, supervision by a trained professional, and sedation before the execution. The Attorney General’s spokesman, Will Califf, could not confirm if the state had agreed to make changes to the execution procedures.
Attorney Mara E. Klebaner, representing Miller, stated that the settlement was reached to protect Miller’s constitutional right against cruel and unusual punishment. Attorney General Steve Marshall considered the settlement a victory for using nitrogen gas as an execution method, emphasizing that the agreement will allow Miller’s execution to proceed in September as planned.
The state’s press release labeled the settlement as a successful defense of the constitutionality of nitrogen executions. However, Miller’s attorney disputed this claim, highlighting that no court had confirmed the constitutionality of the state’s proposed method of execution in this case, noting that a settlement does not entail a ruling on the underlying claim.
The settlement was finalized a day before a federal judge was set to hold a hearing in response to Miller’s request to halt his scheduled September 26 execution. Alabama had previously attempted to carry out Miller’s execution by lethal injection, but faced challenges connecting an IV line to the inmate, leading to the decision to use nitrogen gas instead. Miller, a delivery truck driver, was convicted of the back-to-back workplace shootings in 1999 that resulted in the deaths of Terry Jarvis, Lee Holdbrooks, and Scott Yancy.
