Demetrius Terrence Frazier

Demetrius Terrence Frazier
ADOC mugshot of Demetrius Terrence Frazier
Born	(1972-10-29) October 29, 1972 Michigan, U.S.
Criminal status	Incarcerated on death row in Alabama
Conviction(s)	Alabama Capital murder Murder Michigan Felony murder Armed robbery Felony firearms possession First-degree criminal sexual misconduct (×2)
Criminal penalty	Alabama Death – capital murder Life imprisonment – murder Michigan Life imprisonment (x4) plus 60 to 90 years' jail
Details
Victims	Murdered Pauline Starks Brown, 40 Crystal Kendrick, 14 Alive Eight other rape victims Several robbery victims
Date	1991 – 1992
Location(s)	Alabama, Michigan
Imprisoned at	Alger Maximum Correctional Facility (Michigan; 1993–2011) Holman Correctional Facility (Alabama; 2011–present)

Demetrius Terrence Frazier (born October 29, 1972) is a convicted murderer and serial rapist who is currently on death row in Alabama for the 1991 rape and murder of 40-year-old Pauline Brown, after a robbery on November 27, 1991. Frazier confessed to Brown's murder after his arrest in Detroit, Michigan, for the 1992 murder of 14-year-old Crystal Kendrick in Michigan, whom he had shot to death while attempting to rape the girl. Besides his two murder convictions, Frazier was suspected of raping eight other women in Michigan; and was tried and found guilty of two of those rapes by a Wayne County jury.

For the murder of Brown, Frazier was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death in Alabama in 1996. He was also given multiple life sentences in 1993 for the murder of Kendrick and other offences he committed in Michigan; he spent over 18 years at the Alger Maximum Correctional Facility in Michigan until 2011, when he was transferred to the Holman Correctional Facility in Alabama, home to the state's death row.

Frazier is currently awaiting his execution by nitrogen hypoxia on February 6, 2025.

Murders

Between 1991 and 1992, Demetrius Terrence Frazier, then 19 years old, had committed two murders in Michigan and Alabama respectively.

Pauline Brown

On November 27, 1991, in Birmingham, Alabama, Frazier passed by one of the ground floor apartments in the area when he noticed that the apartment itself had a light on, and therefore formulated an intention to commit robbery. Frazier removed the screen from the window and entered through the window. Frazier searched around the apartment and found some money, amounting to $10 in cash. He then went to another room, where he found 40-year-old Pauline Starks Brown asleep.

After waking her up, Frazier demanded more money, and she gave him $80. Frazier then threatened her with a gun, and during the encounter, Brown begged for her life and was additionally raped by Frazier on gunpoint. Frazier fired a shot and left the apartment briefly to check if anyone had heard it. When Frazier returned, he found that Brown had died. Frazier searched the apartment for more money, ate some food, and left the apartment, and he also disposed of the gun.

Crystal Kendrick

On March 8, 1992, in Detroit, Michigan, Frazier murdered a young girl in midst of a rape attempt.

On that date itself, Frazier confined a 14-year-old runaway girl, Crystal Kendrick, inside an abandoned house, and during the attempt to rape Kendrick, Frazier shot Kendrick to death while she tried to flee from the house. Kendrick's body was found with a bullet wound in her head, and according to her friends and guardian, Kendrick was originally a well-behaved girl before her mother abandoned her, in combination with her mother's drug addiction and Kendrick also gradually went astray without the supervision of her mother and relatives. Kendrick's guardians reportedly expressed guilt and sadness for not able to take better care of Kendrick.

Frazier was subsequently named a suspect behind Kendrick's murder, and he was therefore listed on the wanted list for the offence. Frazier remained on the run for murdering the girl before his arrest during the same month he killed his second victim. Upon his arrest, Frazier confessed to killing Brown while in police custody in Michigan.

Murder trials in Alabama and Michigan

Between 1993 and 1996, Demetrius Frazier was tried in both Michigan and Alabama for the murders he committed there.

Michigan

On July 9, 1992, Frazier was charged with first-degree murder for the fatal shooting of Crystal Kendrick. He was also charged with raping eight other women.

Prior to his trial for murdering Kendrick, Frazier and his lawyers attempted to have his confession to Kendrick's killing ruled inadmissible. Frazier submitted that he fell in love with Detroit homicide detective Monica Childs, who was in charge of the case, and he was thus tricked into confessing to both the murders of Kendrick and Pauline Brown. According to Frazier's counsel, Childs allegedly offered Frazier a promise that he would not be sent back to Alabama to stand trial for Brown's murder, given that Michigan did not have the death penalty while Alabama still allowed the death penalty for murder offences. However, the confession was ultimately ruled admissible in court after the courts rejected Frazier's allegations. Frazier also reportedly punched a prosecutor in court during his pre-trial hearing.

On April 8, 1993, a Michigan trial court found Frazier guilty of felony murder and felony firearms possession in the case of Crystal Kendrick's death. Frazier was sentenced to double terms of life imprisonment for both counts.

In addition to the charges he faced for Kendrick's death, Frazier was also tried in Michigan for other rape and robbery cases he committed prior to the murder of Kendrick, mainly one case of armed robbery and two cases of rape committed on September 1, 1991. Frazier was sentenced to another two life terms, plus 60 to 90 years' jail for these cases on October 20, 1993.

Alabama

In Alabama, Frazier was indicted by a Jefferson County jury in November 1993 on charges of capital murder for the death of Brown. Unlike Michigan, which was a non-death penalty state, the death penalty was legalized in Alabama as a potential punishment for capital murder.

On June 5, 1996, Frazier was found guilty of one count of capital murder under the circumstances of robbery and one lesser charge of murder in the course of rape. Before the jury's verdict was delivered, Frazier reportedly lashed out at the jury, a majority of which consisted of White jurors, for being allegedly racist towards him and even threw a pen at them.

Two days later, during a sentencing hearing on June 7, 1996, the jury recommended the death penalty by a vote of 10–2 for the charge of capital murder. Brown's brother, Curtis Starks, stated that the family were relieved to see Frazier convicted of his sister's murder, and said that Frazier deserved the death penalty for being a serial rapist who killed people that made him mad and he did not deserve to be free.

On August 8, 1996, for the offence of capital murder, Frazier was sentenced to death by Circuit Court Judge Hon. Mike McCormick during a formal court hearing. Frazier was also sentenced to life imprisonment for the lesser offence of murder in the course of rape.

Appeals and incarceration

From 1993 to 2011, Demetrius Frazier served his life sentence at the Alger Maximum Correctional Facility under the supervision of the Michigan Department of Corrections. He was eventually transferred to the Holman Correctional Facility in Alabama, where he was held on death row since 2011.

During the time of his imprisonment in both Michigan and Alabama, Frazier appealed against his death sentence for the murder of Pauline Brown in Alabama. On January 10, 1999, the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals dismissed Frazier's appeal against his death sentence.

On December 30, 1999, the Alabama Supreme Court confirmed the death penalty for Frazier and rejected his follow-up appeal against the judgement of the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals.

On February 28, 2003, Frazier's second appeal to the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals was dismissed.

On October 25, 2011, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals turned down Frazier's appeal.

On October 1, 2012, the United States Supreme Court denied Frazier relief; fully exhausting Frazier's regular appeals.

In September 2014, the Alabama attorney general's office filed a motion with the Alabama Supreme Court to schedule the execution dates of nine death row inmates in Alabama, including Frazier, after they managed to amend the laws to approve a new lethal injection protocol.

Frazier was one of the several death row prisoners from Alabama who launched a lawsuit against the state's execution protocols and the use of lethal injection, which was Alabama's primary method of execution. The federal lawsuit was heard in 2015 and 2016 respectively. Frazier and another convicted killer, Tommy Arthur, suggested that their executions should be carried out by either hanging or firing squad, which were not accepted by a federal judge. Arthur himself was eventually executed in 2017 for the 1982 contract killing of Troy Wicker. Frazier and another four of the plaintiffs also suggested administering a single large dose of midazolam in replacement of the triple drug combination used to conduct lethal injection executions in Alabama, but this suggestion was also rejected.

Subsequently, by 2018, the lawmakers of Alabama managed to legalize executions by nitrogen hypoxia as an alternative method of execution in the state. Frazier was one of the condemned inmates who chose to be executed by nitrogen gas inhalation.

On October 9, 2019, the U.S. Supreme Court again dismissed Frazier's appeal against his death sentence. Frazier was one of the six condemned inmates from Alabama who had lost their last appeals to the U.S. Supreme Court on that same date.

Scheduled execution

On January 7, 2025, Alabama Governor Kay Ivey scheduled Demetrius Frazier's execution date as February 6, 2025, following an order from the Alabama Supreme Court authorizing the Governor to set the date. Frazier was set to be the fourth person on Alabama's death row to be executed by nitrogen gas inhalation, after Alabama conducted its first three nitrogen gas executions in 2024: Kenneth Eugene Smith in January, Alan Eugene Miller in September and Carey Dale Grayson in November. A 30-hour window frame for the execution to be carried out was set from 12am on February 6 to 6am on February 7, 2025.

While awaiting his execution in February 2025, Frazier filed a federal appeal to bar the state from carrying out his execution by nitrogen hypoxia until the state agreed to his request to amend certain parts of the protocol to facilitate his nitrogen gas execution. Frazier's lawyers argued that the prior three executions showed that the nitrogen gas executions did not guarantee an immediate loss of consciousness before death and a painless death, given that there were witness accounts of the three offenders having experienced conscious suffocation, convulsions and sudden involuntary movements on the gurney. However, the state officials refuted Frazier's claims and stated that the nitrogen gas executions did not have any major problems per Frazier's arguments.

See also

• Capital punishment in Alabama
• List of death row inmates in Alabama
• List of people scheduled to be executed in the United States