Alabama executes man who killed elderly couple in 2004

ATMORE, Ala. — An Alabama man received a lethal injection Thursday for the killing of an elderly couple in 2004, the first inmate put to death by the state since it became the first in the nation to execute an inmate using nitrogen gas months ago.

Jamie Ray Mills, 50, was pronounced dead at 6:26 p.m. after a three-drug injection at a southwest Alabama prison, authorities said. Lethal injection remains Alabama’s default execution method unless a condemned inmate requests nitrogen gas or the electric chair.