The Supreme Court decided on Thursday night to stop Alabama from executing a man using nitrogen gas. The decision supported a lower court’s ruling that this method of execution violates the Eighth Amendment, which prohibits cruel and unusual punishment. The court issued a brief order stating that Alabama’s request “was denied.” Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Neil Gorsuch disagreed but did not issue a written dissent.
Jeffery Lee, convicted of a 1998 double murder, is at the center of this temporary victory. Scheduled for execution on July 11, Lee argued that nitrogen gas execution leads to minutes of painful suffocation. Initially, a federal district court disagreed with Lee and permitted Alabama to proceed with their execution plan. However, an appeals court later found that Alabama’s nitrogen gas protocol “presents a substantial risk of serious harm.” Reports from journalists and advocates who have witnessed nitrogen gas executions describe the experience as agonizing, with those executed writhing and retching. Justice Sonia Sotomayor previously called the experience “intense psychological torment” in a dissent regarding another nitrogen gas execution.
Doctors submitted a brief to the court, asserting that execution by nitrogen gas “necessarily causes inhumane suffering.” The Supreme Court has maintained since 2008 that death row inmates must propose an alternative execution method that aligns with the Eighth Amendment when challenging execution methods. Lee proposed the use of a firing squad as an alternative.
Alabama appealed to the Supreme Court on Thursday morning, arguing that nitrogen gas executions do not cause severe pain similar to historical cruel punishments. The Supreme Court had previously approved the state’s first nitrogen gas execution in 2024, and since then, eight such executions have occurred in Alabama. The state claimed that organizing a firing squad presented practical difficulties.
This ruling emerges amidst an increase in executions nationwide. The Death Penalty Information Center noted 47 executions in 2025, the highest in over ten years. So far this year, 15 people have been executed, excluding Lee. President Trump has pushed to expand the death penalty during his second term, even though only three people are on federal death row. Simultaneously, states have struggled to obtain drugs for lethal injections, as many pharmaceutical companies refuse involvement in executions. This has led some states to consider alternative execution methods, including firing squads and gas chambers.
Due to the court’s ruling, Lee’s execution is delayed, but he still faces the death penalty.