Key facts
- The U.S. Supreme Court denied Alabama's request to execute Jeffery Lee using nitrogen gas.
- Lower courts had previously blocked the use of nitrogen gas for executions.
- A federal judge permanently banned nitrogen hypoxia executions, citing potential for severe air hunger and distress.
- Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Neil Gorsuch dissented from the Supreme Court's denial.
- Alabama's Attorney General's office asked the Alabama Supreme Court to authorize a death warrant for Jeffery Lee using lethal injection.
The U.S. Supreme Court denied an emergency appeal from Alabama seeking to execute death row inmate Jeffery Lee using nitrogen gas. This decision upholds previous rulings by two lower courts that had blocked the method, citing concerns it likely violates the constitutional prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. In a brief, unsigned order, the Supreme Court did not provide an explanation for its denial, but Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Neil Gorsuch dissented, indicating they would have allowed the execution to proceed. Alabama's Attorney General Steve Marshall called the halted execution a "miscarriage of justice." Alabama has used nitrogen gas for executions since January 2024, making it one of the few states to employ this method. However, a federal judge this week permanently banned nitrogen hypoxia executions. The judge's ruling, based on expert and witness testimony, concluded that inmates subjected to this method likely experience "severe air hunger and corresponding emotional distress, anxiety, physiological stress, and physical discomfort" before death by asphyxiation. The state had filed its emergency order on Thursday, just hours before Lee, 49, was scheduled to be put to death. Hours after the Supreme Court's denial, Alabama's Attorney General's office asked the Alabama Supreme Court to authorize a death warrant for Jeffery Lee, this time using lethal injection.