Alabama Department of Corrections
When the Supreme Court cleared the way for Alan Miller’s lethal injection on Thursday night, the triple-killer spent several hours believing he was about to die. But when the moment arrived, prison officials had difficulty accessing his veins and, with a midnight deadline looming, the decision was abruptly made to call the execution off.
Miller, 57, was sentenced to death for murdering three men in a workplace shooting rampage in 1999. The choice to halt proceedings and send Miller back to his cell at around 11:30 p.m. came just hours after judges had determined that the execution should proceed.
The Supreme Court overturned earlier decisions blocking the death sentence from being carried out over Miller’s request to be suffocated to death through nitrogen hypoxia—an as-yet untested method of execution that Alabama legalized in 2018. The state said it had no record of Miller ever making such a request, but Miller insists he signed a form asking to be killed by inhaling nitrogen gas because he is afraid of needles.