The federal judge listens to the request to block a next Nitrog …

Montgomery, Ala. (AP) – The state of Alabama urged a federal judge on Tuesday to allow the fourth execution of the nation with nitrogen gas to continue next week, but a doctor who witnessed a previous execution for the new method told the judge that the inmate seemed to be in trouble and minutes awake more than the officials predicted.

Alabama has carried out the three executions of the nation using gas and has established An execution date of February 6 For Demetrius Terrence Frazier, 52. But Frazier’s lawyers, who was convicted of the 1991 violation and the murder of a woman in Birmingham, sought the hearing asking the court to intervene.

Frazier’s lawyers urged the judge to block the execution unless the State makes changes in their protocol, such as giving the inmate the same sedative used at the beginning of lethal injections before the gas begins to flow. Separately, on Tuesday, the mother’s opponents and Frazier’s death penal 14 years. Michigan has no death penalty.

Alabama’s method implies placing a respirator gas mask on the face to replace breathable air with pure nitrogen gas, causing death due to lack of oxygen. The state held on Tuesday that the method brings rapid death.

Dylan L. Mauldin, Alabama Assistant General Lawyer, described the legal maneuver of Frazier a tactic to delay its execution and said that the court should deny its request for a preliminary judicial order. Mauldin said that the United States Supreme Court has never ruled the unconstitutional method.

Meanwhile, a Frazier lawyer argued that inmates executed with the gas seemed to be aware for a few minutes, instead of 30 to 40 seconds that said the State predicted.

The American District Judge Emily Marks questioned Frazier’s lawyer about why he should intervene when the courts have let nitrogen executions advance.

“Something is going wrong. Each inmate that has been executed by Nitrogen Gas has exhibited signs of consciousness beyond 40 seconds, ”said Spencer Hahn, a lawyer for Frazier.

Dr. Brian Mcalary, an anesthesiologist who witnessed the execution of November of Carey Dale Grayson, declared that he observed a clear “evidence of anguish” in the prisoner. He noticed that Grayson shook his head from side to side, had rapid eye movements and fought against his restrictions.

McAlary said he believed that the last voluntary Movement of Grayson occurred after about three minutes when he simultaneously lifted both legs and held them in the air before dropping them. McAlary said he believed that the movement was voluntary because “both legs moved exactly at the same time, direction and distance.”

The testimony was the first time that a doctor testified about the observations during a nitrogen execution. The court previously received journalist news accounts and the observations of prison staff.

Dr. Joseph Antognini, an anesthesiologist hired by the State as an expert witness, gave a competing testimony that such movements did not necessarily indicate that Grayson was aware. Antognini did not witness the execution of Grayson.

“The movement can occur in the absence of pain,” said Antognini. He gave examples of cases in which he saw patients move involuntarily during surgery while he was unconscious. But he acknowledged that he had never seen movements as a double -leg elevator during surgery.

Frazier was in the courtroom, chained and taking handcuffed notes in a legal pad.

Alabama’s corrections commissioner John Hamm, testified that Grayson was combative at the beginning of his execution, cursing the director and lifting his middle fingers while he was tied to the stretcher. Hamm testified that he thought that Grayson’s head movements were an effort to release the mask.

Frazier’s supporters had also argued that he should be in a Michigan prison instead of Alabama’s death corridor.

Frazier was first sentenced in Michigan and sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of a 14 -year -old girl in 1992. Prosecutors said Frazier while he was in police custody in Michigan, confessed to rape and shoot Brown in Alabama after stealing around $ 80 of your bag. He was sentenced in Alabama and gave him the death penalty. The then governors of Alabama and Michigan agreed in 2011 to place it in the Corridor of Alabama’s death.

Frazier’s lawyers had submitted a separate appeal to be sent to Michigan to finish his life sentence there, but withdrew the application after Michigan’s attorney general wrote in a judicial presentation that Michigan did not seek his return.

The opponents of the Death Penalty and Frazier’s mother made a last minute plea to the governor of Michigan, Gretchen Whitmer, to intervene and request that Frazier be sent back to Michigan.

“Please bring my son back to Michigan. Do not let Alabama mate my son if you can stop it, ”Carol Frazier wrote in the letter to Whitmer.

Whitmer’s office declined to comment.

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Associated Press’s reporter Joey Cappelletti, contributed to Lansing, Michigan