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U.S. | Execution by nitrogen hypoxia doesn’t seem headed for widespread adoption as bills fall short and nitrogen producers object

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The day after Alabama carried out the first-known US execution using nitrogen gas, its attorney general sent a clear message to death penalty states that might want to follow suit: “Alabama has done it, and now so can you.” Indeed, in the weeks immediately following the January execution of Kenneth Smith, it appeared a handful of states were listening, introducing bills that would adopt the method known as nitrogen hypoxia or a similar one. Officials behind each framed the legislation as an alternative method that could help resume executions where they had long been stalled.

Alabama | Jury recommends death sentence for man who killed pregnant woman in grocery store

An Alabama jury on Wednesday recommended the death penalty for a man they convicted of capital murder in the 2019 slaying of a pregnant woman in a Conecuh County grocery store.

The Conecuh County jury voted 10-2 in recommending death for Michael Collin Mitchell, 43, of Evergreen in the fatal shooting of Lavon McCreary and her unborn child, court records showed.

“We appreciate the jury’s courage to impose the most severe punishment available. Michael Mitchell’s actions gravely affected our community,” said Conecuh County District Attorney Todd Watson in a statement to AL.com. 

“He murdered Lavon McCreary and her unborn child while McCreary’s two minor children watched her die. There are no winners here. Both families have suffered and will continue to suffer great loss.”

An attorney for Mitchell could not immediately be reached for comment on the jury’s recommended sentence.

Mitchell is scheduled to be sentenced by Conecuh County District Court Judge Jack B. Weaver on June 25, records showed.

McCreary, who was pregnant at the time of the 2019 shooting, was shot in front of her two children in the Pic-N-Sav grocery store in Evergreen, authorities said at the time.

Source: al.com, Howard Koplowitz, June 12, 2024

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"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted."

— Oscar Wilde



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