ATMORE, Ala. — Demetrius Terrence Frazier, a 52-year-old man convicted of murdering a woman during a break-in, is scheduled to face execution on Thursday in Alabama. This will mark the fourth execution in the United States utilizing nitrogen gas.
Frazier was found guilty of killing 41-year-old Pauline Brown in 1991. According to prosecutors, he raped and shot her after unlawfully entering her Birmingham apartment. Should Frazier’s execution proceed, it will stand as the third execution carried out in the country this year and the first in Alabama for 2025.
In 2024, Alabama became the first state in the U.S. to execute inmates using nitrogen gas, with three individuals’ deaths carried out through this method last year. The procedure entails fitting a gas mask over the inmate’s face, replacing breathable air with pure nitrogen, which leads to death due to oxygen deprivation.
Frazier currently has no pending legal appeals leading up to his execution. Instead, his supporters have reached out to a governor in another state, advocating for intervention. His mother, along with opponents of the death penalty, has implored Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer to intervene, requesting that Frazier be returned to Michigan, where he was serving a life sentence for the killing of a 14-year-old girl before being transferred to Alabama’s death row. Notably, Michigan does not carry the death penalty.
“I know my son has changed. Demetrius has repented,” expressed his mother, Carol Frazier, in a heartfelt letter. “Please don’t let Alabama kill my son,” she emphasized.
Governor Whitmer has yet to provide a response to the appeal. However, the Michigan Attorney General’s office noted in a January filing that the state has no interest in reclaiming Frazier. “While Michigan takes no position on the imposition of the death penalty in this case, Michigan does not seek to return Frazier to a Michigan correctional facility,” stated attorneys representing the state.
Frazier’s criminal history includes two separate convictions for killings that occurred in 1991 in Alabama and 1992 in Michigan, with the Michigan conviction being the first established. On November 27, 1991, prosecutors reveal that Frazier, aged 19 at that time, unlawfully entered Brown’s apartment through a window while she slept. After demanding money, he reportedly raped Brown at gunpoint after she handed him $80 from her purse, and subsequently shot her in the head. Adding to the heinous nature of the crime, he returned to the apartment later to snack and search for more money, according to prosecutors.
Frazier admitted to killing Brown in 1992 while he was in custody in Michigan, according to police reports. Initially sentenced to life imprisonment in Michigan for the 1992 murder of Crystal Kendrick, he later faced an Alabama jury in 1996 that convicted him of Brown’s murder and voted 10-2 in favor of a death sentence— a decision that now stands out since most states (except Alabama and Florida) require unanimous agreement for such a penalty.
Frazier remained under Michigan custody until 2011 when governors from both states agreed to transfer him to Alabama’s death row. Recently, a federal judge denied a motion to halt Frazier’s execution. His legal team argued that the newly implemented execution method does not perform as swiftly as promised. Reports from media witnesses noted individuals executed by this method exhibited signs of shaking on the gurney.
The judge concluded that the accounts surrounding the three prior executions do not substantiate claims that any of the individuals “experienced severe psychological pain or distress that exceeds what is inherent in any execution.”
