ATMORE, Ala. (AP) — A man found guilty of the brutal murder of a woman following a break-in at her apartment is scheduled to face the ultimate penalty in Alabama on Thursday through the nation’s fourth application of nitrogen gas in an execution. Demetrius Terrence Frazier, aged 52, was convicted for the heinous 1991 killing of 41-year-old Pauline Brown. Prosecutors alleged that Frazier had sexually assaulted and fatally shot Brown subsequent to unlawfully entering her dwelling in Birmingham.
Should the execution proceed, it will mark the third instance of capital punishment in the United States in the year 2025 and the first in Alabama during this calendar year. Alabama made history as the pioneer state to employ nitrogen gas in executions, which was witnessed during the previous year with the execution of three inmates utilizing this method. The technique entails the affixing of a respirator gas mask onto the individual’s face, thereby substituting breathable air with pure nitrogen gas, inducing death through oxygen deprivation.
In the hours leading up to his slated execution, Frazier did not have any ongoing court appeals. Rather than seeking legal recourse, his advocates made a direct plea to the governor of a different state to intervene. Frazier’s mother and opponents of the death penalty implored Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer to facilitate his return to Michigan, where he was serving a life sentence for the murder of a 14-year-old girl prior to being transferred to death row in Alabama, a state without capital punishment.
Expressing her sentiments in a letter, Frazier’s mother, Carol Frazier, asserted, “I know my son has changed. Demetrius has repented. Please don’t let Alabama kill my son.” Governor Whitmer has refrained from making any public statements on the matter. Nevertheless, the Michigan attorney general’s office conveyed in a court filing dated January that the state had no intention of welcoming Frazier back within its correctional facilities.
Frazier had been convicted of separate homicides in Alabama in 1991 and in Michigan in 1992, with the latter case leading to his initial conviction. Prosecutors recounted the events of November 27, 1991, where Frazier, then 19 years old, forcibly entered Brown’s residence through a window while she was asleep. Following a demand for money, Frazier allegedly committed rape at gunpoint after Brown relinquished $80 from her purse, ultimately shooting her in the head. Prosecutors further alleged that he revisited the scene for a snack and to search for additional funds.
While in custody in Michigan in 1992, Frazier confessed to the murder of Brown. He had already been serving a life sentence in Michigan for the 1992 killing of 14-year-old Crystal Kendrick. Subsequently, in 1996, an Alabama jury found him guilty of the murder of Brown and recommended, with a 10-2
The sentences are incomplete.
