Key facts
- Alabama sought to execute inmate Jeffery Lee using nitrogen gas.
- A federal judge ruled the nitrogen gas execution method unconstitutional.
- The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the ruling.
- Alabama's attorney general's office appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.
- The Supreme Court rejected Alabama's request to proceed with the execution.
Alabama is engaged in a last-minute legal effort to proceed with the execution of Jeffery Lee by nitrogen gas, seeking intervention from the U.S. Supreme Court after a federal judge ruled the state's nitrogen protocol unconstitutional. The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld this decision, noting the potential suffering involved. The state maintains that nitrogen hypoxia is constitutional and causes no more suffering than other methods. Lee's attorneys contend Alabama is attempting to use an already unconstitutional method and urge Governor Kay Ivey to commute his sentence. Lee was convicted of two counts of capital murder for killings in 1998, with a jury recommending a life sentence that a judge overrode.
The Supreme Court's rejection means the execution cannot proceed via nitrogen gas as Alabama had sought. Lawyers for the state had argued that blocking the method would be unprecedented and expand the concept of cruelty beyond the Eighth Amendment's bounds. Lee's legal team countered that Alabama was asking for eleventh-hour intervention to allow an unconstitutional execution. Prison officials noted Lee did not request a final meal but had snacks and drinks. The state has other approved methods, lethal injection and the electric chair, but it is unclear how quickly it could switch.
Nitrogen gas executions, introduced in Alabama two years ago, involve strapping a respirator to a person's face and replacing breathable air with pure nitrogen, causing death from lack of oxygen. The method has been used in eight U.S. executions, seven in Alabama and one in Louisiana. During previous Alabama nitrogen executions, inmates exhibited shaking, labored breathing, and prolonged periods between signs of impact and completion. The state maintains the method is constitutional and causes no more suffering than other execution methods.
Lee was convicted of two counts of capital murder for killing Jimmy Ellis and Elaine Thompson during a 1998 pawnshop robbery. A jury voted 7-5 to give Lee a sentence of life imprisonment, but a judge overrode this decision. Alabama abolished judicial overrides in capital cases in 2017, meaning judges can no longer disregard a jury's sentencing decision. Author John Grisham called on Governor Ivey to honor the jury's decision and commute Lee's sentence.