Triple killer Alan Eugene Miller’s last words before brutal gas execution as he ‘shook violently’ & died in 8 min ordeal
A TRIPLE murderer used his final words to try and claim his innocence before he was executed using the controversial nitrogen gas method.
Alan Eugene Miller, 59, took eight minutes to die after a previous attempt to execute him by lethal injection failed in 2022.
It is the second time the method that has generated debate about its humaneness has been used in the US.
Miller was pronounced dead at 6:38 p.m. local time at a south Alabama prison.
His final words, muffled by the blue-rimmed gas mask that covered his face from forehead to chin, were: "I didn't do anything to be in here."
The killer also asked his family and friends to "take care" of someone -but it was not clear whose name he said.
Miller shook and trembled on the gurney for about two minutes with his body at times pulling against the restraints.
That was followed by about six minutes of periodic gulping breaths before he became still.
Miller was convicted of killing Lee Holdbrooks, Christopher Scott Yancy and Terry Jarvis in 1999.
Family members of the three men did not witness the execution and did not issue a statement.
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Despite his plea of innocence before he died, witnesses at Miller's trial had expressed no doubt about his guilt.
Delivery truck driver Miller was convicted of capital murder after the three men were shot dead in the city of Peleham, Alabama, on August 5, 1999.
Police said early that morning, Miller entered Ferguson Enterprises and fatally shot coworkers Holdbrooks, 32, and Yancy, 28.
He then drove five miles away to Post Airgas, where he had previously worked, and shot Jarvis, 39.
Trial testimony indicated that Miller was paranoid and believed his co-workers had been gossiping about him.
A witness described Miller as saying "you've been spreading rumors about me" before he opened fire.
All three men were shot multiple times.
Miller had initially pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity but later withdrew the plea.
A psychiatrist hired by the defense said Miller was mentally ill but his condition wasn't severe enough to use as a basis for an insanity defense, according to court documents.
Jurors convicted Miller after 20 minutes of deliberation and recommended by a vote of 10-2 that he receive the death penalty.
America's most notorious executions
The isssue of the death penalty in the US has been cast back into the spotlight following the execution of Kenneth Eugene Smith
The U.S. Sun has a rundown of some of the most notorious executions, including ones that did not go to plan.
Jesse Tafero
Tafero was sentenced to the death penalty after he was wrongly accused of shooting two police officers in 1976.
His death was anything but ordinary as the electric chair he was strapped to malfunctioned three times and his head burst into six-inch flames.
“It takes seven minutes before the prison doctor pronounced him dead, seven minutes of heaving, nodding, flame, and smoke," one eye witness later said.
Clayton Lockett
Lockett was sentenced to death for murder and rape in 2000 but his 2014 execution was called off after it was botched.
Nine failed attempts were made to inject potassium chloride into his veins until officials put the needle into his groin.
The injection slowed his heart instead of fully stopping it before a doctor placed the needle into an artery, which caused blood to squirt over him.
The execution was called off but Lockett died of a heart attack on his way to the hospital.
George Stinney
The 14-year-old was sentenced to death in 1944 for the murder of two girls, despite a lack of evidence.
Stinney was too small to fit into the electric chair so he had to sit on books but he survived the first round of 2,400 volts.
Prison guards had to use two more electric shots to kill the teen.
Stinney's conviction was overturned by a South Carolina court in 2014, 70 years after he was executed.
John Evans
Evans had shot and killed an Alabama pawnshop owner in 1977 during a fumbled raid of the store.
He initially survived the first shocks of 1,900 volts but an electrode came loose resulting in a gruesome scene.
“A large puff of greyish smoke and sparks poured out from under the hood that covered Mr. Evans’s face,” his lawyer said.
“An overpowering stench of burnt flesh and clothing began pervading the witness room.”
Evan's heart was still beating after the second electrocution and he finally died following the third shock, in a 14-minute ordeal.
Pedro Medina
Medina, a Cuban refugee, was convicted of murdering his neighbor Dorothy James in 1982.
He died in an electric chair 15 years later but a journalist reported his gruesome ordeal.
“Blue and orange flames up to a foot long shot from the right side” of his head," the reporter said.
“They’re burning him alive," witness Michael Minerva also said.
In 2022, the state called off the previous attempt to execute Miller after being unable to connect an IV line to the 351-pound inmate.
Miller had initially challenged the nitrogen gas protocol but dropped his lawsuit after reaching an undisclosed settlement with the state.
The execution was the second to use the new method Alabama first employed in January, when Kenneth Smith was put to death.
The method involves placing a respirator gas mask over the inmate's face to replace breathable air with pure nitrogen gas, causing death by lack of oxygen.
Alabama officials and advocates have argued over whether Smith suffered an unconstitutional level of pain during his execution after he shook in seizure-like spasms for several minutes, at times rocking the gurney.
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Smith then gasped for breath for several minutes.
The shaking exhibited by Miller was similar to what was seen at the first nitrogen gas execution but did not seem as long or as violent.