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USA - Alabama. Demetrius Frazier, 52, Black, was executed
February 6, 2025: February 6, 2025 - Alabama. Demetrius Frazier, 52, Black, was executed in the Holman Correctional Facility.
By nitrogen hypoxia.
Frazier was the state’s first execution of 2025 in Alabama, and the fourth carried out by nitrogen hypoxia.
Frazier was executed for the 1991 rape and murder of Pauline Brown. Prosecutors said Frazier broke into Brown’s Birmingham apartment, raped her, and shot her in the back of the head.
Before his conviction in Alabama, Frazier was convicted in Michigan for the 1992 murder of a 14-year-old girl in midst of a rape attempt. He was sentenced to life in prison. Michigan does not have the death penalty.
Besides his two murder convictions, Frazier was suspected of raping eight other women in Michigan; and was tried and found guilty of two of those rapes by a Wayne County (Michigan) jury.
Frazier’s mother made a last-minute plea to Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to intervene and request that Frazier be sent back to Michigan to serve the life sentence instead of being executed in Alabama, however Whitmer’s office declined to comment on the request.
When asked for his final words as he lay on the gurney in the death chamber, Frazier also apologized to the family and friends of Brown, saying that what happened to her should never have happened, and also apologized to the Black community.
But it wasn’t all apologies Frazier gave, he pleaded with the media to contact a Michigan police chief about “a false confession for a crime I never committed.”
Frazier also claimed he was a prisoner of Michigan and criticized the state’s governor for not intervening in his execution.
Frazier’s official time of death was 6:36 p.m. C.S.T. Thursday night.
Alabama Department of Corrections Commissioner John Hamm said nitrogen gas flowed for roughly 18 minutes and there were no complications.
“We did see movement, the movement was a lot less than the other three we had. As y’all could see he was kind of swirling his wrists, that didn’t last very long, that was an indication that he lost consciousness,” said Hamm.
Brown’s family members declined to give a statement following the execution.
Timeline of Frazier’s execution:
6:05: curtain drawn back
6:07: Frazier is asked if he has any last words.
6:10: Prison guard adjusts mask on Frazier. His eyes remain closed, and he begins slowly circling his palms as if he’s beckoning something/someone to come forward, while taking slow, heavy breaths.
6:12: Continues to take slow, heavy breaths, and slightly quivering.
6:13: Frazier slowly stretches his hands open, then slowly closes them
6:14: Frazier’s head, which had been pointing upwards towards the ceiling, falls to the right. His body also seems to relax.
6:16: A guard steps forward and visually examines Frazier.
6:19: The last time Frazier appears to be breathing.
6:29: The curtain is drawn closed.
Frazier becomes the 1st person to be executed this year in Alabama, the 79th since the state resumed executions in 1983, the 3rd of the year in the US, and No. 1610 since executions resumed in the US in 1977.
https://www.wbrc.com/2025/02/07/alabama-carries-out-first-execution-2025/ (Source: WBRC, 06/02/2025)
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