Alabama can’t perform execution using untested method after last-minute decision

Alabama will not be able to carry out an execution next week using an untested method, following a last-minute intervention in the matter by the state’s corrections commissioner.

In a letter on Thursday, Alabama Corrections Commissioner John Q Hamm said the state “cannot carry out an execution by nitrogen hypoxia on September 22” as planned, multiple reports said.

Alabama had been due to execute 57-year-old Alan Miller using nitrogen hypoxia – the untested execution method – before a federal judge ordered the state to release its protocol for doing so, as USA Today reported.

Facing a deadline of 5pm on Thursday, Mr Hamm said the state would not be ready to use nitrogen hypoxia for the execution of Mr Miller, who says he requested the method in lost paperwork in 2018.

It was unclear on Friday if the execution will go ahead next week using a tested – albeit controversial – lethal injection method, with the Associated Press reporting that litigation is likely.

US district judge R Austin Huffaker Jr is now expected to rule on Mr Miller’s request for a preliminary injunction of execution by lethal injection with days to spare.

Mr Miller, who was convicted of killing three men in a 1999 shooting at his workplace, has been seeking to block his scheduled execution by lethal injection at Alabama’s Holman Prison.

He has claimed in court that prison staff were responsible for losing the paperwork in which he stated nitrogen as his preferred execution method, rather than lethal injection.

According to USA Today, however, only three states have permitted use of the untested method and none have official protocols on it.

A state attorney suggested during a hearing earlier this week that it was nearing completion of a protocol however. The status of those plans were unclear on Friday.

Additional reporting by the Associated Press.