Sat Feb 01 09:21:32 IST 2025: ## Alabama Judge Allows Nitrogen Gas Execution to Proceed Despite Concerns
**Montgomery, Alabama – February 1, 2025** – A federal judge has refused to halt the execution of Demetrius Frazier in Alabama, scheduled for January 30th, which would be the fourth execution in the U.S. using nitrogen gas. Chief District Judge Emily C. Marks rejected Frazier’s request for an injunction, stating he failed to demonstrate that the method constitutes unconstitutional cruel and unusual punishment.
Frazier was convicted of the 1991 rape and murder of Pauline Brown in Birmingham. His lawyers argued that evidence from the state’s first three nitrogen gas executions in 2024 suggests the method causes conscious suffocation, contradicting the state’s claims of a swift death. Witness accounts, including those from medical professionals and the Associated Press, described inmates exhibiting signs of distress during the executions.
While acknowledging that prolonged conscious suffocation could violate the Eighth Amendment, Judge Marks ruled that the evidence presented did not definitively prove Frazier would experience such suffering. The state maintained that the inmates’ movements were involuntary or feigned. The judge’s ruling notes that the longer an inmate remains conscious during the procedure, the higher the risk of violating the Eighth Amendment.
Frazier’s mother appealed to Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer to intervene, citing Frazier’s prior life sentence in Michigan for a separate murder. However, Governor Whitmer’s office declined to comment. The execution proceeded as scheduled.
First Piper 