Alabama is pursuing its second execution using nitrogen gas, following controversy over being the first state to employ this method.
Alan Eugene Miller, convicted of a 1999 workplace shooting, faces an execution date requested by the state’s attorney general.
The UN deems nitrogen gas executions cruel, but Alabama argues for its effectiveness.
The first nitrogen gas execution of Kenneth Eugene Smith in January was criticized as he reportedly thrashed violently.
Miller, surviving a previous lethal injection attempt, filed a lawsuit, leading to the state’s decision to use nitrogen gas.
Advocates oppose the method, while only Oklahoma and Mississippi besides Alabama permit it due to challenges with lethal injection drugs nationally.
