'A monster': Demetrius Frazier executed by nitrogen gas in Alabama for woman's 1991 murder

USA Today

07-02-2025

'A monster': Demetrius Frazier executed by nitrogen gas in Alabama for woman's 1991 murder
Alabama executed Demetrius Terrance Frazier by nitrogen gas on Thursday, making him the fourth inmate in the U.S. to be put to death by the controversial method since Alabama began using it last year.
Frazier, who was pronounced dead at 6:36 p.m. CT, was on Death Row for the murder of 41-year-old Pauline Brown, a mother of two killed just before Thanksgiving Day in 1991. Brown's boyfriend found her battered body in her Birmingham, Alabama apartment.
Frazier admitted to raping and killing Brown after breaking into her apartment while she was home alone.
Frazier and his attorneys have been arguing that the use of nitrogen gas violated Frazier's Eighth Amendment protections against cruel and unusual punishment, but the Alabama Attorney General rejected that.
"Demetrius Frazier was a monster who brutally took the lives of two innocent woman and left behind a trail of unspeakable violence," Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall said in a statement. "For the crimes he committed in Alabama, he was fairly and appropriately punished. While nothing can erase the agony he inflicted, I pray that this brings closure to those who loved Pauline and have endured the painfully slow wheels of justice for so many years."
What execution method was used?
Frazier was executed by nitrogen hypoxia. When used, the inmate breathes pure nitrogen gas through a mask that displaces the oxygen in their system.
Frazier's execution by nitrogen gas comes a little more than a year after Kenneth Eugene Smith became the first person in the U.S. to be executed with the method in January 2024.
The Rev. Jeff Hood, a spiritual advisor for Death Row inmates who has witnessed more than a half dozen executions, was at Smith's execution and described it as being "horrific" and bringing society closer to a "moral apocalypse."
"We're talking about minutes and minutes of thrashing and spitting," Hood told USA TODAY. "His head going up and down (and) back and forth. The (expletive) gurney that's bolted to the floor started shaking."
Alabama used the method again in September 2024 with the execution of Alan Eugene Miller and in November 2024 with the execution of Carey Dale Grayson.
Proponents of nitrogen gas claim the method is almost instant and painless. Opponents, including Hood, claim it is largely untried and amounts to torture.
Alabama Attorney General Marshall has said that "despite misinformation campaigns by political activists, out-of-state lawyers, and biased media ... nitrogen hypoxia is both humane and effective."
What was Demetrius Frazier convicted of?
Frazier admitted to police that in the early morning of Nov. 26, 1991, he broke into the apartment of Pauline Brown, stole some money from one of the bedrooms and then found Brown in another bedroom, according to court documents.
Armed with a .22-caliber pistol, Frazier woke Brown up, demanded more money and then raped her at gunpoint. Frazier told police that when Brown refused to stop begging for her life, he shot her in the back of the head.
After confirming Brown was dead, Frazier ate two bananas from her kitchen, left the apartment and threw the gun in a ditch, according to court documents.
Questions about Brown's killing would go unanswered for about four months, until Frazier was arrested for an unrelated attempted rape and murder in Detroit in March 1992. During an interrogation with Detroit police, Frazier admitted to killing Brown.
A jury sentenced Frazier to death, and he was executed more than 20 years later at the William C. Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, Alabama.
Who was Pauline Brown?
Brown enjoyed spending time with her two daughters and friends, and unwinding with television after a long day at work.
When Brown didn't show up for work at Bama Foods, where she was a cook for more than 18 years, her coworkers and friends grew worried.
Her boyfriend was also concerned because Brown hadn't picked him up for work that day like usual and she wasn't answering his phone calls. When he went to her apartment on Nov. 27, 1991, he found her body inside.
More: Who was Pauline Brown? Alabama woman killed by man set for execution on Thursday
Mary Gaston, a friend who worked with Brown at Bama Foods, told the now-defunct Birmingham Post-Herald that she, Brown and their fellow coworker and friend Maggie Williams were "always together."
Gardenia Merritt, Brown's sister-in-law, said she was a "drug-free lady, a good worker," who enjoyed watching a bit of television after work before retiring to bed.
Brown's remaining living daughter, Phyllis Denise wished her mother a happy 71st birthday in a Facebook post in 2021. "Happy heavenly birthday to my beautiful mommie Pauline Starks Brown ... Luv u mommie."
In 2019, Phyllis Denise changed her Facebook profile photo to one of Brown. Commenters on the post recalled how she enjoyed listening to Maze and eating red velvet cake.
Who was Demetrius Fraizer?
Frazier's childhood was "so rife with neglect, abuse and crushing poverty it rivals the saddest of sad prison stories," Stephen Cooper, a former assistant federal public defender who worked with Frazier between 2012 and 2015, said in a column published last month by the Montgomery Advertiser, part of the USA TODAY Network.
Frazier was raised by Carol Frazier, his mother, without paternal support and guidance and he was briefly in the custody of social services, according to Michigan Department of Corrections pre-sentence investigation reports obtained by USA TODAY.
Carol described her son as "hard-headed" and said Frazier frequently snuck out at night to commit crimes, the reports say.
More: Demetrius Frazier, a 'vicious' killer, is set to be executed in Alabama. Who is he?
Frazier dropped out of high school but later obtained his GED from the now defunct W.J Maxey Boys Training School in Michigan, according to the reports. The training school was a juvenile correctional facility that served boys and men between the ages of 12 and 21.
In September 1991, two months before Brown's murder, Frazier broke into a Detroit home armed with a knife, raped the homeowner several times and told her he was doing it as part of a bet, according to court documents.
In early 1992, Frazier was charged with the first-degree murder of 14-year-old Crystal Kendrick, whom he tried to rape and then murdered when she tried to flee, according to media reports. Frazier was serving a life sentence for Crystal's murder in Michigan before he was transferred to an Alabama facility in 2011.
Contributing: Marty Roney, Sarah Clifton, the Montgomery Advertiser, and Amanda Lee Myers, USA TODAY
Greta Cross is a national trending reporter at USA TODAY. Follow her on X and Instagram @gretalcross. Story idea? Email her at [e-mail].