Supreme Court blocks Alabama execution by nitrogen gas

The U.S. Supreme Court blocked Alabama’s emergency bid to carry out the scheduled execution of Jeffery Lee using nitrogen gas, leaving his death sentence in place but upholding lower-court rulings that the method likely violates the Constitution.

For the third time on the edge of a deadline, Alabama’s plan to execute Jeffery Lee seemed poised to move forward—until Thursday night, when the U.S. Supreme Court shut the door on the state’s request to proceed.

Alabama had asked the justices to allow it to carry out the death sentence of Jeffery Lee, 49, at 6 p.m. local time using nitrogen gas. In a brief order. the court refused to grant the emergency request. upholding lower court rulings that had concluded Alabama’s nitrogen hypoxia protocol likely violated the Eighth Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

The immediate effect was clear: the scheduled execution was halted. The court did not overturn Lee’s death sentence, meaning Alabama remains free to pursue another method at a later date.

Governor Kay Ivey, a Republican, expressed frustration but said her focus would remain on carrying out justice for the victims. Her office said in a statement, “This evening the U.S. Supreme Court denied the state of Alabama the ability to execute death row inmate Jeffery Lee by nitrogen hypoxia. ” adding. “While I am disappointed the Supreme Court did not allow the state to proceed… I remain committed to ensuring that justice is ultimately served for his victims.”.

The order itself offered no explanation. Still, the vote showed sharp divisions within the conservative bloc on the court. Three justices—Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch—said they would have granted Alabama’s request and allowed the execution to move forward.

Alabama’s nitrogen gas effort has been moving through a fast and furious legal fight. Earlier in the week. a federal district judge had upheld the method as constitutional. concluding it did not inflict pain beyond what existing law permits. That ruling was quickly overturned by the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. which said Alabama’s protocol posed a “substantial risk of serious harm” and could expose inmates to severe suffering that goes beyond the pain of death. The appeals court sent the case back for further review, signaling the method could run into constitutional limits.

The dispute has also landed in the middle of an argument that has grown louder nationwide since the method was first used in 2024. Nitrogen hypoxia works by depriving a person of oxygen, replacing breathable air with high-purity nitrogen until death occurs by suffocation. Critics have accused the approach of causing unnecessary suffering and torment. pointing to the idea that the constitution bars “severe pain.” Alabama officials. for their part. have maintained that the method does not amount to “severe pain” prohibited by the Constitution.

In 2025, the Supreme Court allowed a nitrogen gas execution to take place, even as critics assailed the method. Lee became part of the next chapter in that unfolding battle.

He had chosen to be killed by nitrogen gas, according to the case described in court materials. Later, he asked for a firing squad, which Alabama does not allow.

If the sequence of rulings feels like it has lurched back and forth. the stakes are rooted in the same question the courts were asked to settle: whether Alabama’s nitrogen hypoxia protocol crosses the constitutional line on cruel and unusual punishment. A district judge said it did not; the 11th Circuit said it could expose inmates to a “substantial risk of serious harm”; and on Thursday night. the Supreme Court refused to let Alabama carry the execution out on an emergency basis.

Before any of that courtroom fighting, Lee’s case began in the violent aftermath of a robbery in 1998.

Jeffery Lee has been on Alabama’s death row for more than two decades after being convicted of a 1998 double murder during a robbery at a pawnshop in Dallas County. The underlying crime dates to December 1998. when court records describe Lee entering the store armed with a shotgun and shooting the owner. Jimmy Ellis. and employee Elaine Thompson. Another employee, Helen King, survived.

At trial, a jury recommended Lee receive life in prison without the possibility of parole, voting 7-5 against the death penalty. But the presiding judge rejected that recommendation and imposed a death sentence under “judicial override,” a now-defunct practice.

Alabama abolished judicial override in 2017, but the change was not made retroactive, leaving inmates like Lee subject to death sentences imposed under earlier law.

Lee was scheduled to be Alabama’s first execution of 2026, before Thursday’s Supreme Court intervention halted the plan—for now.

Even with the execution blocked, Alabama still has room to act. The Supreme Court’s decision leaves Lee’s death sentence intact. and Governor Ivey made clear that the ruling does not end the case. The governor’s position. as described in her office statement. is that Alabama can reschedule the execution at a later date. though it remains unclear how quickly or by what method.

Alabama has argued that alternatives such as firing squads are not practical, while Lee’s legal team has pushed for that option in court filings.

The broader dispute now stretches beyond one execution date. Lower court decisions in Lee’s case could shape whether nitrogen gas continues to be used—not only in Alabama, but potentially in other states considering similar protocols.

For the moment. the Supreme Court’s intervention offers a temporary reprieve for opponents of nitrogen hypoxia. who have argued for years that nitrogen gas executions amount to unconstitutional punishment. But with Alabama signaling it intends to move forward through other options. and with conservative justices split even within their ranks. the legal fight over how executions are carried out in the U.S. is far from settled.

U.S. Supreme Court Alabama nitrogen gas execution Jeffery Lee Kay Ivey Eighth Amendment cruel and unusual punishment death penalty 11th Circuit nitrogen hypoxia