A man convicted of raping and murdering an Alabama woman seemed to criticize Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in his final words before being put to death by nitrogen gas, reports say.
Demetrius Frazier, 52, was pronounced dead at 6:36 p.m. Thursday at a south Alabama prison following the 1991 attack on 41-year-old Pauline Brown. Frazier previously was serving a life sentence in Michigan for the 1992 murder of 14-year-old Crystal Kendrick, but in 2011, the then-governors of the two states agreed to move him to Alabama’s death row.
“If you cannot stand up for the constitution of Michigan, how are you going to stand up for the U.S. Constitution when you run for president?” Frazier said Thursday in an apparent address to Whitmer, according to the Montgomery Advertiser.
“Detroit strong. I love everyone on death row. Let’s go,” he reportedly added.
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Hours ahead of his execution, Frazier visited with his mother, sister and legal team. He had a final meal from Taco Bell that included burritos and a Mountain Dew soft drink.
“I want to apologize to the family and friends of Pauline Brown. What happened to Pauline Brown should have never happened,” Frazier also said in his final words.
Recently, Frazier’s mother and death penalty opponents had pleaded to Whitmer to take Frazier back to his home state of Michigan to complete his life sentence, according to The Associated Press.
Michigan does not have the death penalty. Police had said Frazier confessed to killing Brown in 1992 while in custody in Michigan.
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Whitmer told The Detroit News before the execution that her predecessor, Rick Snyder, “unfortunately” had “sent [Frazier] down there” and that the situation was out of her control.
“It’s a really tough situation,” she added. “I understand the pleas and concerns. Michigan is not a death penalty state.”
Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey said in a post-execution statement that justice was done.
“In Alabama, we enforce the law. You don’t come to our state and mess with our citizens and get away with it,” Ivey said. “Rapists and murderers are not welcome on our streets, and tonight, justice was carried out for Pauline Brown and her loved ones.”
Prosecutors said that on Nov. 27, 1991, Frazier, then 19, broke into Brown’s apartment in Birmingham while she was asleep. Prosecutors said he demanded money and raped Brown at gunpoint after she gave him $80 from her purse. He then shot her in the head and returned later to have a snack and look for money, they said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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