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Another nitrogen execution

Demetrius Terrence Frazier was put to death by the state of Alabama Thursday for killing Pauline Brown in 1991 in Birmingham, reports AL.com’s Ivana Hrynkiw.

He was executed using the nitrogen hypoxia method.

There’s still debate over nitrogen and whether it’s more humane than other execution methods, and inmates have shown different levels of gasping and thrashing — something state officials attribute to the inmates’ efforts to hold their breath as the nitrogen is administered. Here’s the description of Thursday’s execution from Ivana:

“About 6:11 p.m., Frazier started waving his hands in circles towards his body. About a minute later, his hands stopped moving.

“At approximately 6:12 p.m. Frazier clenched his face, and his nostrils flared, while his hands quivered. He appeared to say something, which was inaudible to the three witness rooms. His legs slightly lifted up off the gurney and he gasped.

“Then, his head rolled to the right side. Frazier exhibited sporadic gasping and shallow breathing until about 6:20 p.m.

“The curtains closed at 6:29 p.m., and his time of death declared seven minutes later at 6:36 p.m.”

Alabama Department of Corrections Commissioner John Hamm said he believed Frazier lost consciousness when his hands and wrists stopped moving and the following breaths were involuntary movements.

In 1991 Frazier entered Brown’s home while she slept, woke her up, raped her and shot her in the back of her head. He later said he shot her because he was tired of hearing her beg for her life.

Not long after that he was back in his native Michigan, serving a life sentence over sex crimes and the murder of a 14-year-old girl.

Meanwhile, he was sentenced to die in Alabama, so Michigan sent him down here in 2011 to await execution. His lawyers asked officials in Michigan, which does not have a death penalty, to help him return there to serve out his life in prison.

The Detroit News reported that Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said yesterday afternoon that it was out of her hands.

A rare Gulf Coast sight

A video of a rare whale along Alabama’s Gulf Coast is making waves on Facebook, reports AL.com’s Patrick Darrington.

The video was from Capt. Bobby Kelly of Miss Brianna’s Fishing Charter. He saw two right whales in Perdido Pass on Sunday.

It was a rare moment. It’s estimated that there are fewer than 400 right whales left in the world. Biologists who track the whales say they are both North Atlantic right whales, making their sighting in the Gulf extra rare. They believe the two females were scouting places to give birth.

According to NOAA’s website, it’s against the law to be operating a vessel within 500 feet of right whales. So if you realize that describes you and your boat, NOAA guidance says, immediately set a course away from them at a safe, slow speed.

You don’t want to hurt an endangered whale or wreck your boat.

Goat Hill roundup

If you were listening last year during the Legislative session you know sometimes we do a quick-fire roundup of some of the noteworthy things that are happening right now.

Well, here are a few things you might be keeping up with:

• The full Senate passed the bill that defines male and female based on biological sex. There is a version in the House. The governor has said she backs the effort.
• Another bill has been filed in the Senate that would exempt nursing mothers from jury duty. This is an issue that has arisen from several moms who claim they were harassed and threatened by Jefferson County judges because they brought their breastfeeding babies to jury duty. It would codify a recent order from the Alabama Supreme Court.
• Another Senate bill would raise the age at which people can make their own health-care decisions from 14 to 18.
• Over in the House, a bill was unveiled that would require a display of the Ten Commandments in a common area of public schools along with a context statement entitled “The History of the Ten Commandments in American Public Education.
• And also in the House, there is a bill that would permanently establish Juneteenth as a state holiday. It’s already been a federal holiday since 2021, recognized on June 19, and in Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey has used proclamation to recognize it as a state holiday each year.

More Alabama News

Born on This Date

In 1953, former NFL linebacker Robert Brazile of Mobile.

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