Months after nation’s 1st nitrogen gas execution, Alabama gives man lethal injection for 2 killings

By KIM CHANDLER
Associated Press

ATMORE, Ala. (AP) — Alabama has executed a man convicted of killing an elderly couple at their home in 2004. Authorities say 50-year-old Jamie Ray Mills was pronounced dead Thursday evening following a lethal injection at a south Alabama prison. Mills was convicted of capital murder in the deaths of 87-year-old Floyd Hill and his 72-year-old wife Vera Hill. Mills was the first Alabama inmate put to death since the state became the first in the U.S. to use nitrogen gas to execute another man in January. Lethal injection remains Alabama’s main execution method. Prosecutors said Mills beat the couple with a machete, hammer and a tire iron and stole $140 and medications.