Demetrius Frazier is set to die by nitrogen gas on Thursday for the robbery, rape and murder of Pauline Brown in 1991. His attorneys argue that the execution method is cruel and unusual.

This story contains details of a disturbing, violent crime.

A killer and rapist described by one police investigator as the “most vicious person” he’s ever come across is set to become the fourth inmate executed by nitrogen gas in the U.S. since Alabama began using the controversial method last year.

Demetrius Terrence Frazier, 52, is set to die by nitrogen gas on Thursday for the robbery, rape and murder of 41-year-old Pauline Brown on Nov. 26, 1991, in Birmingham, Alabama. If the execution moves forward, Frazier will be the first inmate executed in Alabama this year and the third in the nation.

Frazier is facing a “barbaric, state-induced gasping and gruesome conscious suffocation,” Stephen Cooper, a former assistant federal public defender in Montgomery, Alabama, wrote in a column published by the Montgomery Advertiser. Cooper worked with Frazier between 2012 and 2015 and said he spent “long hours” fighting to spare Frazier from execution.

Frazier and his attorneys argue that the nitrogen gas method is a breach of Eighth Amendment protections against cruel and unusual punishment, but the state’s Attorney General has rejected the arguments.

“Mr. Frazier chose to be executed by nitrogen hypoxia in June 2018 and we will honor his request,” the office said in a statement. (Frazier could have chosen either electrocution or lethal injection, instead.)

As Frazier’s execution approaches, USA TODAY is looking back at the crime, who Frazier and his victim were and what led him down a path that will end in his own execution.

What was Demetrius Frazier convicted of?

Pauline Brown lived at the Fountain Heights Apartment complex in Birmingham with her two adult daughters, Phyllis Denise Brown and Pamela Denita Brown, the now defunct Birmingham Post-Herald previously reported.

In the early morning of Nov. 26, 1991, two days before Thanksgiving, Frazier admitted to police that he broke into the apartment, stole some money from one of the bedrooms and then found Brown in another bedroom, according to court documents.

Armed with a .22-caliber pistol, Frazier woke Brown up and demanded more money. Brown gave Frazier $80 from her purse.

Frazier told police that he then raped Brown at gunpoint, during which Brown begged for Frazier to not kill her. Frazier told police that when Brown refused to stop begging for her life, he shot her in the back of the head.

Frazier said he “didn’t like whiny women who pleaded for their lives,” Detroit homicide Detective Monica Childs, who interviewed Frazier, said during his trial, according to previous reporting by the Birmingham Post-Herald.

After confirming Brown was dead, Frazier ate two bananas from the kitchen, left the apartment and threw the gun in a ditch, according to court documents.

Questions about Brown’s killing would go unanswered for about four months, until Frazier was arrested for an unrelated attempted rape and murder in Detroit in March 1992. During an interrogation with Detroit police, Frazier admitted to killing Brown.

An Alabama jury convicted Frazier of three counts of capital murder and he was sentenced to death.

A string of other rape, murder charges

In September 1991, just two months before Brown’s murder, Frazier broke into a Detroit home armed with a knife, raped the homeowner several times, and told her he was doing it as part of a bet, according to court documents.

In early 1992, Frazier was charged with the first-degree murder of 14-year-old Crystal Kendrick, whom he tried to rape and then murdered when she tried to flee, according to media reports. Frazier was serving a life sentence for Crystal’s murder in Michigan before he was transferred to an Alabama facility in 2011.

When he was arrested for Crystal’s murder in 1992, Frazier was facing 35 pending felonies, according to reports..

‘Luv u mommie’: Alabama mom’s killer is set for execution Thursday. Who was Pauline Brown?

Frazier asks federal court to block use of nitrogen gas

Alabama authorized the use of nitrogen gas in 2018 and the state executed the first U.S. inmate in history in January 2024, using the method on Kenneth Smith. The execution took about 22 minutes, during which Smith reportedly convulsed, shook and gasped for air before losing consciousness, USA TODAY previously reported. After Smith, Alabama administered two more nitrogen gas executions in September and November.

Frazier and his lawyers asked a federal judge during a Jan. 28 hearing to block his nitrogen gas execution, claiming the method is a cruel and unusual punishment.

“Something is going wrong,” Frazier’s attorney, Spencer Hahn, said at the hearing, according to the Associated Press. “Every inmate who has been executed by nitrogen gas has exhibited signs of consciousness beyond the 40 seconds” that was predicted by the state.

During the hearing, two anesthesiologists presented competing testimonies on the affects of nitrogen gas. One claimed the method ensures distress for an individual and the other said bodily movements, which have been reported during and following the use of nitrogen gas, don’t necessarily indicate pain.

More: Nitrogen hypoxia: Why Alabama’s execution of Kenneth Smith stirs ethical controversy.

Who is Demetrius Frazier?

Frazier’s childhood was “so rife with neglect, abuse and crushing poverty it rivals the saddest of sad prison stories,” Frazier’s former attorney, Cooper, wrote in the column. He didn’t elaborate.

Frazier was raised by his mother, Carol Frazier, without paternal support and guidance, and was briefly in the custody of social services, according to Michigan Department of Corrections pre-sentence investigation reports obtained by USA TODAY.

Carol described her son as “hard-headed” and said Frazier often snuck out of the house at night to commit crimes, the reports say.

Frazier dropped out of high school but later obtained his GED from the now defunct W.J Maxey Boys Training School in Michigan, according to the reports. The training school was a juvenile correctional facility that served boys and men between the ages of 12 and 21.

Frazier was charged as a juvenile with carrying a concealed weapon, and violating probation for breaking and entering, and violation of probation for carrying a concealed weapon, according to the reports. Frazier was put on probation for the first two violations and committed to social services for placement for the latter.

Frazier known for aggressive behavior in courtroom

Throughout the trial for his murder case, Frazier was known by court staff and the jury to be aggressive.

According to court documents, Frazier threw a pen at the jury box, cursed at the majority white jury as being racist (Frazier is Black), accused one of his defense attorneys of conspiring with prosecutors and rebelling against the judge’s orders.

For a period of time, Frazier was even removed from the courtroom, forced to watch his trial from a small room connected to the courtroom to avoid further disruptions, the Birmingham Post-Herald previously reported.

During his Michigan trial for the murder of Crystal Kendrick, Frazier punched an assistant prosecutor in the face, which resulted in a mild concussion, the Detroit Free Press previously reported.

The newspaper reported that Kenneth Bresnahan, the Detroit investigator that Frazier reportedly admitted Brown’s murder to, called Frazier the “most vicious person” he had ever come across.

Frazier, lawyers seek transfer back to Michigan

Frazier is on death row in Alabama for Brown’s murder, but he and his lawyers have been fighting for his transfer back to Michigan, where the death penalty is illegal.

In 2011, the governors of Michigan and Alabama entered into an executive agreement to relinquish Frazier to Alabama for the remainder of his Alabama sentence.

In a court filing, the Michigan Department of Corrections said the state “does not seek to return Frazier to a Michigan correctional facility.”

Contributing: Marty Roney, Montgomery Advertiser

Greta Cross is a national trending reporter at USA TODAY. Follow her on X and Instagram @gretalcross. Story idea? Email her at gcross@usatoday.com.