Governor Kay Ivey announced on Tuesday the time frame for the nitrogen hypoxia execution of Demetrius Frazier for the 1991 rape and murder of a Birmingham woman.

Frazier, 53, was convicted in 1996 of capital murder for the 1991 killing of Pauline Brown. The jury, by a vote of 10-2, recommended the death penalty.

Ivey set the time frame of the execution to start at midnight on Thursday, February 6, and expire on Friday, February 7. If successful, Frazier will be the state's first execution of 2025.

According to court records, Frazier was arrested on an unrelated charge in Detroit, Michigan, in March 1992. While in the custody of the Detroit Police Department, Frazier reportedly confessed to the murder of a woman in Birmingham. A Birmingham detective then traveled to Detroit, where Frazier reportedly again admitted to the murder on tape.

According to Frazier's reported statements, on the night of the murder, he saw a light on in Brown's ground-floor apartment at the Fountain Heights Apartment complex. After finding under $10 in the home, he entered Brown's room, where she slept. After awakening her with a .22 caliber pistol, he demanded more money. After receiving $80 from Brown's purse, things turned for the worse.

"Frazier then forced [Brown] at gunpoint to have sexual intercourse with him," Court records state. "While he was raping her, Ms. Brown begged Frazier not to kill her. When Ms. Brown refused to stop begging for her life, Frazier put the pistol to the back of her head and fired the gun.  Fearing that someone had heard the gunshot, Frazier left the apartment. He went across the street to see if anyone had heard the shot. Satisfied that no one had heard the shot, he returned to the apartment. He searched the apartment for more money and confirmed that Ms. Brown was dead. He then went to the kitchen, ate two bananas, and left the apartment. He threw the pistol in a ditch."

Frazier's appeals have all thus far failed. In one appeal, his attorneys argued that the trial court committed a reversible error by failing to instruct the jury to ignore a profanity-laced outburst in which Frazier threw an object toward the jury and accused the jury of being racist, leading to his forceful removal from the courtroom.

To connect with the author of this story or to comment, email craig.monger@1819news.com.

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