Demetrius Frazier set to be executed with controversial nitrogen gas method. What to know.
Demetrius Terrance Frazier, a killer and rapist described by one police investigator as the "most vicious person" he'd ever come across, is set to be executed in Alabama on Thursday, which would make him the fourth inmate put to death by nitrogen gas in the U.S. since Alabama began using the controversial method last year.
Frazier, 52, is set to die by nitrogen gas for the murder of 41-year-old Pauline Brown in Birmingham, Alabama, on Nov. 26, 1991. If the execution moves forward, Frazier will be the first inmate executed in Alabama this year and the third in the nation.
Frazier and his attorneys have argued that the use of nitrogen gas is a breach of Eighth Amendment protections against cruel and unusual punishment, but the Alabama Attorney General has rejected that.
“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.
Here's what to know about Frazier's execution, including more about nitrogen gas.
How will Demetrius Frazier be executed?
Frazier's execution by nitrogen gas comes a little more than a year after Kenneth Eugene Smith became the first person in the U.S. – and likely the world − to be executed with the method in January 2024.
The Rev. Jeff Hood, a spiritual advisor for Death Row inmates who has witnessed more than a half dozen executions, was at Smith's execution and described it as being "horrific" and bringing society closer to a "moral apocalypse."
"We're talking about minutes and minutes of thrashing and spitting," Hood told Paste BN. "His head going up and down (and) back and forth. The (expletive) gurney that's bolted to the floor started shaking."
Alabama used the method again in September with the execution of Alan Eugene Miller and in November with the execution of Carey Dale Grayson.
With nitrogen hypoxia is used, the inmate breathes pure nitrogen through a mask that displaces oxygen in their system. Proponents claim it is an almost instant and painless method. Opponents, including Hood, claim it is largely untried and amounts to torture.
Alabama Attorney General Marshall has said that "despite misinformation campaigns by political activists, out-of-state lawyers, and biased media ... nitrogen hypoxia is both humane and effective."
What was Demetrius Frazier convicted of?
Frazier admitted to police that in the early morning of Nov. 26, 1991, he broke into the apartment of Pauline Brown, stole some money from one of the bedrooms and then found Brown in another bedroom while she was home alone, according to court documents.
Armed with a .22-caliber pistol, Frazier woke Brown up, demanded more money and then raped her at gunpoint. Frazier told police that when Brown refused to stop begging for her life, he shot her in the back of the head.
After confirming Brown was dead, Frazier ate two bananas from her 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.
When and where is Demetrius Frazier's execution?
Frazier is set to be executed around 6 p.m. Thursday at the William C. Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, Alabama. The execution comes one day after Texas executed Steven Nelson on Wednesday for the murder of a young pastor.
Who was Pauline Brown?
Brown was friends with many of her coworkers at Bama Foods, a food manufacturer she worked at for 18 years as a cook. So when she didn't show up for work on Nov. 27, 1991, they grew worried.
Her boyfriend also was concerned because Brown hadn't picked him up for work that day like usual and wasn't picking up the phone. When he went to her apartment and found her battered body inside.
Mary Gaston, a close friend who worked with Brown at Bama Foods, told the Birmingham Post-Herald that she, Brown and their fellow coworker and friend Maggie Williams were "always together."
Gardenia Merritt, Brown's sister-in-law, said she was a "drug-free lady, a good worker," who enjoyed watching a bit of television after work before retiring to bed.
Phyllis Denise wished her mother a happy 71st birthday in a Facebook post in 2021. "Happy heavenly birthday to my beautiful mommie Pauline Starks Brown ... Luv u mommie."
In 2019, Phyllis Denise changed her Facebook profile photo to one of Brown. Commenters on the post recalled how she enjoyed listening to the soul band Maze and eating red velvet cake.
Who is Demetrius Frazier?
Frazier's childhood was "so rife with neglect, abuse and crushing poverty it rivals the saddest of sad prison stories," Stephen Cooper, a former assistant federal public defender who worked with Frazier between 2012 and 2015, said in a column published last month by the Montgomery Advertiser, part of the Paste BN Network.
Frazier was raised by his mother, Carol Frazier, without paternal support and guidance and he was briefly in the custody of social services, according to Michigan Department of Corrections pre-sentence investigation reports obtained by Paste BN.
Carol described her son as "hard-headed" and said Frazier frequently snuck out 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.
In September 1991, 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.
Who is witnessing the execution?
The Alabama Department of Corrections said five news media members are among the execution witnesses: The Associated Press, the Montgomery Advertiser, AL.com, WBRC and WVTM.
Greta Cross is a national trending reporter at Paste BN. Follow her on X and Instagram @gretalcross. Story idea? Email her at gcross@usatoday.com.
Contributing: Marty Roney, Amanda Lee Myers