Alabama
Alabama puts man to death in the nation's fourth execution using nitrogen gas
Michigan resident Beverly Leaf stands in solidarity with Carol Frazier, mother of Demetrius Frazier, as she pleads publicly on Jan. 28 in Lansing, Mich., to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to bring home her son Demetrius, a Detroit man convicted of rape and a separate murder of a 14-year-old in the early 1990s, who was serving a life sentence when he was charged with another murder in Alabama and is scheduled to be executed there Feb. 6.
Jake May/MLive.com/The Flint Journal
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Jake May/MLive.com/The Flint Journal
ATMORE, Ala. — A man convicted of murdering a woman after breaking into her apartment as she slept was put to death Thursday evening in Alabama in the nation’s fourth execution using nitrogen gas.
Demetrius Frazier, 52, was pronounced dead at 6:36 p.m. at a south Alabama prison for his murder conviction in the 1991 rape and killing of Pauline Brown, 41. It was the first execution in Alabama this year and the third in the U.S. in 2025, following a lethal injection Wednesday in Texas and another last Friday in South Carolina.
“First of all, I want to apologize to the family and friends of Pauline Brown. What happened to Pauline Brown should have never happened,” Frazier said in his final words. He finished by saying, “I love everybody on death row. Detroit Strong.”
Frazier in his final words also criticized Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer for what he called her failure to step in following appeals for him to be returned to serve out a previous life sentence in her state.
Recently, Frazier’s mother and death penalty opponents had pleaded to Whitmer to take Frazier back to his home state of Michigan to complete his life sentence for the murder of a teenage girl before he was turned over years ago to Alabama authorities. Michigan does not have the death penalty. Police had said Frazier confessed to killing Brown in 1992 while in custody in Michigan.
Whitmer told The Detroit News before the execution that her predecessor, Rick Snyder, “unfortunately” agreed to send Frazier to Alabama and it was in the hands of officials there.
“It’s a really tough situation,” she told the media outlet. “I understand the pleas and concerns. Michigan is not a death penalty state.”
Prosecutors said that on Nov. 27, 1991, Frazier, then 19, broke into Brown’s apartment in Birmingham while she was asleep. Prosecutors said he demanded money and raped Brown at gunpoint after she gave him $80 from her purse. He then shot her in the head and returned later to have a snack and look for money, they said.
Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey said in a post-execution statement that justice was done.
“In Alabama, we enforce the law. You don’t come to our state and mess with our citizens and get away with it,” Ivey said. “Rapists and murderers are not welcome on our streets, and tonight, justice was carried out for Pauline Brown and her loved ones.”
Frazier was sentenced to life in prison in Michigan for the 1992 murder of Crystal Kendrick, 14. Then in 1996, an Alabama jury convicted him of murdering Brown and recommended by a vote of 10-2 that he receive a death sentence. Frazier remained in Michigan custody until 2011 when the then-governors of the two states agreed to move him to Alabama’s death row. Frazier suggested in his final statement that his confession to the killing of the Michigan girl was false.
Alabama became the first state to conduct nitrogen gas executions, putting three people to death last year with the method. It involves placing a respirator gas mask over the person’s face to replace breathable air with pure nitrogen gas, causing death by lack of oxygen. Frazier, like the first three people to be executed by the method, shook or quivered on the gurney, although to a lesser degree than the others.
Frazier was strapped to a gurney with a blue-rimmed gas mask covering his entire face. The execution began at about 6:10 p.m. after a corrections officer did a final check of the mask.
Frazier moved his outstretched palms in a swirling circular movement for the first minute or two. At 6:12 p.m., he stopped circling his hands. He appeared to grimace, quiver on the gurney and take a gasping breath. A minute later, he raised both legs several inches off the gurney and then lowered them.
His breathing slowed at 6:14 p.m. to a series of sporadic breaths. He had no visible movement by about 6:21 p.m. The curtains to the execution chamber closed at 6:29 p.m.
Alabama Corrections Commissioner John Hamm said afterward that the gas flowed for about 18 minutes and that instruments indicated Frazier no longer had a heartbeat 13 minutes after the gas began.
Hamm said he believed that Frazier lost consciousness quickly. He said he believed other movements, including the raising of the legs and periodic breaths, were involuntary.
A federal judge last week refused to block the execution. Defense attorneys had argued the new method does not work as quickly as the state promised. Media witnesses, including The Associated Press, previously described how those put to death with the method shook on the gurney at the start of their executions.
The judge, however, ruled that the descriptions of the executions did not support a finding that any of the men “experienced severe psychological pain or distress over and above what is inherent in any execution.”
Abraham Bonowitz of Death Penalty Action said the method of execution is “experimental gas suffocation.” He said it needs more scrutiny in the federal courts before Alabama uses it to carry out another execution.
Some of Brown’s family members witnessed the execution but declined to make a statement to the media.
Hours ahead of his execution, Frazier visited with his mother, sister and legal team. He had a final meal from Taco Bell that included burritos and a Mountain Dew soft drink.
Does that animal have rabies? Here are signs and symptoms to look for
Rabies is an infectious disease that affects the central nervous system in mammals. Here’s what to look for in pets.
The Republic
State health officials are urging people to keep their pets vaccinated for rabies after a fox in Elmore County and a raccoon in Lee County tested positive for the virus.
On May 1, the raccoon was spotted acting strangely near Auburn, and the fox emerged from a wooded area and attacked a person in Tallassee, according to the Alabama Department of Public Health. The person has sought medical treatment.
“Rabies is not seasonal, and we continue to see cases year-round, but late spring is a time when activity peaks, particularly in wildlife,” said Dr. Dee Jones, state veterinarian for the ADPH, “The primary risk of rabies from wildlife is our pets, and keeping them up to date on rabies vaccine is critical.”
Alabama state law requires that dogs, cats and ferrets 12 weeks of age and older be current with rabies vaccination. In addition to vaccination, area residents are advised to take the following precautions to avoid possible exposure to rabies:
- Do not leave uneaten pet food or scraps near your residence.
- Do not allow pets to run loose; confine them within a fenced-in area or with a leash.
- Do not illegally feed or keep wildlife as pets.
- Do not go near wildlife or domestic animals that are acting in a strange or unusual manner.
- Caution children not to go near any stray or wild animal, regardless of its behavior.
Contact Montgomery Advertiser reporter Marty Roney at mroney@gannett.com. To support his work, please subscribe to the Montgomery Advertiser.
U.S. Rep. Robert Aderholt (R-Haleyville) says Alabama is on the cusp of delivering a sixth Republican congressional seat, and with it, potentially the U.S. House majority itself.
“Getting one seat in November, this November, we don’t have to wait two years, could decide the majority for the Republicans,” Aderholt said today on “The Rightside” in partnership with Yellowhammer News, hosted by Allison Sinclair and Amie Beth Shaver.
“So that’s very appealing,” he added.
Aderholt predicted a return to the congressional map drawn and approved by the Alabama Legislature in 2023, before the federal courts stepped in and forced a redraw.
If the U.S. Supreme Court lifts the injunction barring Alabama from altering its congressional map before 2030, the state would go back to the one approved by the Legislature and signed into law by the governor that year.
The 2023 map essentially creates six Republican districts and one Democratic district.
The Alabama Legislature passed both chambers’ redistricting bills Wednesday as the special session continues in Montgomery.
Aderholt referenced the “Livingston map,” the Legislature’s 2023-approved plan in namesake of State Sen. Steve Livingston (R-Scottsboro), arguing it was consistent with the Supreme Court’s recent direction that race cannot be the predominant factor in drawing district lines.
“It would not put a second minority district, per se, but it would give opportunities for everybody in the state of Alabama to have equal opportunity to be elected to Congress, whether they’re black or whether white,” Aderholt said.
Some have called for state lawmakers to a map that would make all seven districts Republican-leaning, but Aderholt explained the issues with going down that route.
“There are some proposals out there to try to do a what is called a true 7-0 map where there’s no chance that a Democrat could be elected in any of the congressional districts…and there is some down there that are afraid that if you do away with that one, in addition to doing away with the new district that was drawn where Shomari Figures is that, that would be an overreach, and the court would put everything on hold, and we couldn’t do we couldn’t even get the additional seat until the court order, a different court order came through, and who knows when that would be.”
Yaffee is a contributing writer to Yellowhammer News and hosts “The Yaffee Program” weekdays 9-11 a.m. on WVNN. You can follow him on X @Yaffee
As the Alabama Legislature convened Monday for another special session, it marks the tenth time in the past decade that a governor has called lawmakers back to Montgomery outside the regular calendar.
Here’s a look at what brought them back each time.
2015: General Fund budget crisis
Governor Robert Bentley called lawmakers back after vetoing a cut-heavy General Fund budget that would have slashed roughly $200 million from state agencies. The rainy day borrowing from the Alabama Trust Fund that had propped up state government since 2012 had finally run dry. Bentley proposed a $310 million tax increase package. Legislative leaders recessed for three weeks and then resurrected the same budget he had already vetoed. Nothing passed.
2015: Budget, take two
With the fiscal year starting October 1 and still no budget, Bentley called a second session. Lawmakers hammered out a patchwork compromise that averted a government shutdown but fell well short of the structural revenue fix Bentley had pushed for.
2016 — Medicaid funding and the lottery
Medicaid faced an $85 million shortfall. Bentley called lawmakers back and pushed a lottery bill that would have sent $100 million annually to Medicaid. The Senate passed it 21-12, but the House couldn’t get there. The fallback was a $640 million bond issue backed by Alabama’s BP Deepwater Horizon settlement, which kept Medicaid funded for two more fiscal years. The lottery died again.
2019 — Rebuild Alabama gas tax
Ivey called a special session the day after her State of the State address to pass a 10-cent gas tax increase, the state’s first in 27 years. The three-bill package passed quickly.
2021 — First Special Session: Prison construction
Facing a federal DOJ lawsuit over unconstitutional prison conditions, Ivey called lawmakers back to authorize a $1.3 billion prison construction plan funded by state bonds, General Fund dollars, and $400 million in federal COVID relief money.
2021 — Second Special Session: Post-census redistricting
Delayed census data pushed redistricting into a special session. Lawmakers drew new congressional, state legislative, and school board maps in five days. The congressional map was immediately challenged as a Voting Rights Act violation, launching the Allen v. Milligan litigation that continues today.
2022 — ARPA funds, first tranche
Ivey called lawmakers back to appropriate $772 million in remaining federal relief funds. The session produced over $276 million for broadband expansion, plus major investments in water and sewer infrastructure.
2023 — First Special Session: ARPA funds, second tranche
Another $1.06 billion in federal funds needed appropriation. Ivey used the same tactic as 2019: State of the State one day, special session the next. The money went to healthcare, broadband, infrastructure, and repaying the final $60 million owed to the Alabama Trust Fund from the Bentley-era borrowing.
2023 — Second Special Session: Court-ordered redistricting
After the Supreme Court ruled in Allen v. Milligan that Alabama’s map likely violated the Voting Rights Act, the Legislature drew new maps that a federal court rejected as non-compliant. A court-appointed special master drew the maps used in the 2024 elections instead.
2026 — Redistricting, again
Monday’s session follows the Supreme Court’s decision in Louisiana v. Callais. The Legislature will prepare contingency maps and special primary election procedures in case the court lifts the injunction blocking Alabama from redrawing its districts before 2030.
The pattern
Three distinct forces have driven Alabama’s special sessions over the past decade. The Bentley-era sessions were born from a structural budget collapse the Legislature couldn’t or wouldn’t fix through new revenue.
The Ivey-era spending sessions used tightly controlled special sessions to move high-dollar legislation quickly with minimal floor debate.
And the redistricting sessions have been driven by court deadlines and Supreme Court decisions, with the Legislature’s maps rejected or overridden in two or three attempts.
Sawyer Knowles is a capitol reporter for Yellowhammer News. You may contact him at [email protected].
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