Demetrius Terrence Frazier
Demetrius Terrence Frazier was an American serial rapist and convicted murderer executed 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 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 was executed by nitrogen hypoxia on February 6, 2025, after being imprisoned over 32 years.
Early life
Demetrius Terrence Frazier was born in Michigan on October 29, 1972.Frazier, who had one sister, was raised by his mother Carol, but he was neglected as a child. He was also in custody of social services at one point. As a child, Frazier would often sneak out of his house to commit petty offences. Frazier dropped out of high school at a young age.
As a juvenile, Frazier was dealt with by the law for carrying concealed weapons and also violated his probation for both carrying concealed weapons and breaking and entering. At one point, Frazier was detained at the W.J Maxey Boys Training School, a juvenile correctional facility in Michigan for adolescents and young adults aged between 12 and 21; Frazier obtained a GED during his stay at the detention center.
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 $5 or $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 out of her purse. Frazier then threatened her with a gun, and forced her to have sexual intercourse with him. Brown begged for her life and Frazier fired a shot in the back of her head 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.
The body of Brown was eventually found by Tyrone Mitchell, who was a co-worker and friend of Brown. Mitchell arrived at the home of Brown after the latter, who was supposed to give him a ride to their workplace to attend their work shift, did not show up for work and he showed concern over her absence. Mitchell and two maintenance men managed to open the window into Brown's apartment, and it led to the discovery of Brown's body, which was lying face down inside the bedroom. At the time of her death, Brown was survived by her two daughters and one grandchild.
Crystal Kendrick
On March 8, 1992, in Detroit, Michigan, Frazier murdered a young girl in midst of a rape attempt.On that date, 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. 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 gradually having gone astray without the supervision of her mother and relatives. Kendrick's guardians reportedly expressed guilt and sadness for not being 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 handed another two life sentences, 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. A short time after that, Frazier was extradited to Alabama to serve his death sentence at the Holman Correctional Facility, which also houses the execution chamber in Alabama.
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. In 2015, Frazier was one of five death row prisoners who filed a lawsuit opposing the state authorities' bid to administer large doses of midazolam in lethal injection executions.
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.