Alabama moved to execute Jeffery Lee using lethal injection after an attempt to use nitrogen hypoxia was blocked. The Alabama Attorney General requested the state’s Supreme Court to issue a death warrant for Lee. State lawyers clarified that the Alabama Department of Corrections (ADOC) is restricted from executing him via nitrogen hypoxia, not from execution altogether.
The Alabama Department of Corrections provided an undated photo of Lee, who was convicted for murdering two people during a 1998 pawn shop robbery. Lee’s legal team did not immediately comment on the new legal developments. His attorneys are expected to respond to this request soon.
The U.S. Supreme Court refused to overturn an injunction prohibiting Lee’s execution by nitrogen gas. A district judge had blocked this method, citing that it violated the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment. The injunction allowed for lethal injection or the electric chair as alternatives for Lee’s execution.
Jeffery Lee, 49, has been on death row since his conviction in a 1998 double murder and robbery. Initially, a jury voted 7-2 for him to receive a life sentence, but a trial judge overruled, opting for the death penalty. This process, known as ‘judicial override,’ placed many individuals on Alabama’s death row before its prohibition in 2017.
Alabama has defended its nitrogen gas protocol as a more humane method than lethal injection. The state’s primary execution method has faced significant criticism due to previous botched executions. A legal trial to address concerns over the nitrogen gas method is scheduled for 2027.
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