Alabama court sets Sept 22 execution for 1990 triple killing

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — A mentally disturbed truck driver convicted of killing three males in a office capturing rampage greater than 20 years in the past is ready to be put to demise on Sept. 22, the Alabama Supreme Courtroom stated Monday.

The clerk’s workplace introduced the scheduled execution date of Alan Eugene Miller, 57, who was convicted of capital homicide and sentenced to demise within the slayings, which occurred in Shelby County in 1999.

Miller might nonetheless mount a authorized problem to dam his deliberate execution by deadly injection at Holman Jail in Atmore. Whereas the jail system has stated it’s creating nitrogen hypoxia as a substitute strategy to put folks to demise, the state is not but setting execution dates for inmates who select that untested technique.

An government coming into Ferguson Enterprises in Pelham on Aug. 5, 1999, heard noises and noticed Miller, a supply driver, leaving earlier than discovering Lee Holdbrooks and Scott Yancy fatally wounded inside, court docket paperwork present. Miller drove off after which confirmed up a couple of miles (kilometers) away at Submit Airgas, the place Terry Jarvis was killed and Miller beforehand had labored.

One other employee at Submit Airgas referred to as police, who arrested Miller in his truck on a freeway.

Testimony indicated that Miller was delusional and believed the lads had been spreading rumors about him, together with one by Jarvis that he was homosexual. Whereas a protection psychiatrist testified that the person was mentally ailing, he additionally stated Miller’s situation wasn’t unhealthy sufficient to make use of as a foundation for an madness protection beneath state legislation.

Given the quantity of proof that prosecutors compiled, the protection targeting making an attempt to spare Miller’s life at sentencing fairly than convincing jurors of his innocence. Jurors convicted Miller after 20 minutes of deliberation after which really helpful a demise sentence, which a choose imposed beneath Alabama’s capital punishment legislation on the time.

The U.S. Supreme Courtroom refused an attraction by Miller in October.

Courts beforehand rejected Miller’s claims that neither the jury nor a choose specified aggravating circumstances that made him eligible for the demise penalty. Courts additionally rejected Miller’s arguments that the choose instructed jurors concerning the legislation improperly and that his protection lawyer was ineffective.

One other Alabama inmate already is ready for execution later this month.

A federal choose final week dominated that the execution of Joe Nathan James Jr. might go forward as scheduled on July 28, refusing the condemned man’s request for a postponement. James was convicted of killing his one-time girlfriend, Religion Corridor, in Birmingham, nearly three a long time in the past.