The 3rd Execution of 2025
The state of Alabama executed Demetrius Terrence
Frazier by nitrogen gas on February 6, 2025 for the rape and murder of
Pauline Brown in Birmingham in 1991, reported the Alabama Reflector.
Frazier, 52, the fourth person the state has executed
by nitrogen gas, was pronounced dead at 6:36 p.m., according to Gov. Kay Ivey’s
office.
“First of all, I want to apologize to the friends and
family of Pauline Brown, what happened to her should never have happened,”
Frazier said when he made his final statement. “I want to apologize to the
Black community.”
Frazier also criticized Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer
for not intervening in his case. Frazier was transferred to Alabama in 2011
while serving a life sentence in Michigan for the 1992 murder of Crystal
Kendrick, 14. His legal team had urged Whitmer to take
custody of his case and have him transferred back to the state for the
crimes he committed in Michigan. Whitmer did not intervene.
A member of the Corrections staff adjusted Frazier’s
mask at about 6:10 p.m. and the nitrogen gas began to flow a few minutes
afterward. Media witnesses reported that Frazier struggled to breathe for
several minutes during the execution.
At one point in the execution, Frazier lifted his legs
and his body twitched, according to media witnesses. That is similar to what
other witnesses observed from the three other executions that the state carried
out using nitrogen gas.
Witnesses said that they observed Frazier take his
final breath at about 6:20 p.m.
“It went according to plan like our protocol says,”
ADOC Commissioner John Hamm said at a news conference following the execution.
The state executed Kenneth
Eugene Smith by nitrogen gas in January 2024. Alan
Eugene Miller was put to death under the method in September. Carey
Dale Grayson followed in November.
“In Alabama, we enforce the law,” Ivey said in a
statement Thursday evening. “You don’t come to our state and mess with our
citizens and get away with it.”
The governor said that justice was carried out on
behalf of Brown and her loved ones.
“I pray for her family that all these years later,
they can continue healing and have assurance that Demetrius Frazier cannot harm
anyone else,” Ivey said.
Frazier was convicted of Kendrick’s death in 1993 and
sentenced to life in prison. An Alabama jury convicted Frazier of capital
murder in 1996 and recommended he be put to death by a vote of 10-2. While
arguing that Frazier should be returned to Michigan, Frazier’s legal team also
argued the nitrogen gas protocol violated Frazier’s Eighth Amendment
protections against cruel and unusual punishment, citing the distress that
media witnesses reported among the men who had previously been subjected to it.
The federal courts rejected both arguments. Michigan
Attorney General Dana Nessel said they would not ask for Frazier to be returned
to their state.
Frazier’s family and supporters petitioned Whitmer to
intervene. Frazier’s mother Carol penned a letter that requested Whitmer get
involved, and a petition collected more than 4,000 signatures.
“We are disappointed that Michigan chose to ignore
requests to intercede, to ignore its own history, and failed to have Mr.
Frazier returned to Michigan to complete his life sentences,” Frazier’s legal
team said in a statement after Frazier’s execution Thursday. “We are
disappointed that Gov. Ivey has not granted clemency, especially under these
uniquely unfair and painful circumstances. Martin Luther King, Jr. said
‘Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.’ Tonight, we grieve for
everyone.”
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