Federal judge considers blocking nitrogen execution of convicted killer

A U.S. district judge in Alabama heard oral arguments on Tuesday to stop the nitrogen gas execution of Demetrius Terrence Frazier scheduled for next week. The death row inmate’s attorneys focused on the psychological impact that the controversial execution method would have during the prisoner’s final moments, according to a report by AL.com, a local media outlet. Frazier’s team also argued that if the execution is not stopped, the judge should at least allow the prisoner to be unconscious when the gas is administered.

Frazier received the death sentence for the 1991 rape and murder of Pauline Brown in Birmingham, Ala. Gov. Kay Ivey allotted a 30-hour window starting Feb. 6 and into the next day for corrections officers to perform Frazier’s execution. The state made history last year by performing the nation’s first nitrogen gas execution and faced stiff opposition to the practice since. Experts remain divided over how much pain a prisoner experiences while inhaling pure nitrogen. Witnesses described the prisoner shaking on the gurney within the first minutes of the gas feeding into the mask, followed by minutes of labored, sporadic breathing.

However, state medical professionals argued that prisoners quickly lose consciousness and feel nothing regardless of body movements. Advocates against the death penalty attempted to stop previous nitrogen gas executions alleging that the method violates a prisoner’s constitutional protection against cruel and unusual punishment.

How is Frazier’s team arguing for sedatives for a convicted killer? Frazier’s attorney Spencer Hahn argued that the preexisting execution protocol that allowed a sedative to be administered before lethal injections should be applied to nitrogen executions. This isn’t a medical procedure, it's an execution, a local outlet reported Hahn arguing on Tuesday.

However, the state argued that Frazier’s team did not have enough evidence that Frazier would feel significant pain to merit sedation. State prosecutors added that psychological pain before execution is unavoidable.

Dig deeper: Read Lynde Langdon’s report on Alabama conducting the first nitrogen gas execution in the United States last year.