The U.S. Supreme Court on June 11 blocked Alabama from carrying out Jeffery Lee’s nitrogen gas execution on an emergency basis, rejecting the state’s request to override a lower court ruling. Three conservative justices would have allowed the execution to proc
When the Supreme Court rejected Alabama’s emergency bid to carry out a nitrogen gas execution on Thursday, it didn’t just delay a date on a calendar. It put the state back into a longer appeals fight—one the inmate’s lawyers say is essential when the method itself is in dispute.
On June 11, the Supreme Court said Alabama can’t immediately execute Jeffery Lee using a controversial nitrogen gas method that a lower court had found is likely unconstitutional. Alabama had urged the justices to lift that barrier so the execution could proceed despite the ruling.
In a brief and unsigned decision, the court denied Alabama’s request to allow the execution to move forward while the case plays out through the regular appeals process. That path will take time.
The Supreme Court has never previously found a method of execution to be unconstitutional.
Still, in a split within the conservative bloc, three of the court’s six conservatives—Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Neil Gorsuch—said they would have let the execution proceed as initially planned for Lee, a death row inmate.
Lee’s attorneys framed the emergency appeal as an attempt to force a life-or-death outcome without the “full review” that typically comes with the normal appellate process. They told the Supreme Court that Alabama was asking it to decide irreversibly before that review concluded, writing that “Mr. Lee faces irreversible harm if executed by an unconstitutional method before appellate review concludes. ” and that “the public interest lies in ensuring that executions comply with the Constitution.”.
What “execution by nitrogen gas” would have looked like
Lee, convicted of a double murder during a pawn shop robbery in 1998, would have been the ninth person in the nation—and the eighth from Alabama—to die by nitrogen gas.
Under the method, executioners strap an inmate to a gurney with chest and shoulder harnesses, then attach a mask to the inmate’s face. Ultra-high-purity nitrogen gas flows into the mask and displaces breathable air until none is left. The inmate loses consciousness and dies.
A federal judge in Alabama had held a three-day bench trial this spring on whether nitrogen gas is constitutional—described as the first such trial in the nation. The judge found that the person being executed would “experiences severe air hunger and corresponding emotional distress. anxiety. physiological stress. and physical discomfort.”.
But the judge also concluded Lee’s attorneys had not shown that the pain and distress go well beyond what’s required to cause death.
Why a lower court said the method is unconstitutional
The dispute sharpened at the appellate level.
The Atlanta-based 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals disagreed with the judge’s view of constitutional acceptability. The appeals court said the distress lasts between one and three minutes—time the panel said is intolerable under the Eighth Amendment.
It wrote that “Such suffering, we believe, is over and above the mental distress that typically accompanies the knowledge of impending death by execution.”
In a filing submitted to the Supreme Court. the American Thoracic Society told the justices that nitrogen gas executions cause “intense. inhumane suffering. ” and that the method is considered too inhumane for euthanizing mice or dogs. The group argued that the Eleventh Circuit’s decision “aligns with the science.”.
What question the Supreme Court denied on June 11
Alabama had asked the Supreme Court to permit the execution to proceed on Thursday, arguing that the suffering and distress caused by nitrogen gas does not violate the Eighth Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
The Supreme Court did not agree to that emergency request. By refusing, it effectively preserved the lower court’s barrier—for now—unless Alabama’s case survives future review through the ordinary appellate timeline.
Lee’s backup method—and why Alabama said it could be hard
Lee did not only oppose nitrogen gas. Both the district judge and the appeals court signed off on an alternative execution method that Lee was required to provide when opposing nitrogen gas: a firing squad.
The district judge ruled that firing squad executions produce a quick and painless death.
Alabama countered that it couldn’t simply switch over quickly. State officials said they would need time and resources and, even then, might not be able to find enough expert marksmen willing to fire the guns.
Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall made that argument in the state’s appeal to the Supreme Court, writing that “A method that rests on the availability of five trained executioners would risk a reliability problem like the one that led the State to adopt nitrogen hypoxia in the first place.”
That caution lands in a broader pattern of states wrestling with execution logistics.
In May, Tennessee called off an execution after prison staff could not find a vein to administer lethal injection drugs. States have also struggled to obtain the drugs used for lethal injection. Several have turned to nitrogen gas as a result.
The crime that led to Lee’s death sentence
Lee’s case traces back to December 13, 1998. Court records say Lee walked into a pawn shop and shouted, “Give me your money!” as two accomplices waited in a car.
Within six seconds, Lee used a 12-gauge shotgun to shoot Jimmy Ellis, Elaine Thompson, and Helen King. Court records and archived news reports say Ellis and Thompson were killed while King survived the shooting.
The shooting drew national attention because Ellis was a noted Elvis impersonator at the time.
At trial, a jury found Lee guilty of first-degree murder. In a 7-5 vote, the jury recommended a sentence of life in prison without parole. But the judge overrode that recommendation using authority under Alabama law and sentenced Lee to death.
In recent weeks, protests have focused partly on the fact that the jury recommended life in prison without parole, with that decision influenced in part by evidence that Lee has mental disabilities.
A quiet but decisive shift in Alabama’s timeline
The Supreme Court’s June 11 ruling did not declare nitrogen gas constitutional or unconstitutional outright. It denied Alabama’s attempt to force a decision now, before regular appeals can play out.
Three conservative justices would have let Lee be executed as initially planned. but the majority’s refusal means Alabama is now back in the slower lane—where legal questions are still being weighed and where. for Lee. the next stage of litigation must come before the state can attempt to carry out the punishment.
Supreme Court Alabama nitrogen gas execution Jeffery Lee Eighth Amendment cruel and unusual punishment firing squad lethal injection drug shortages 11th Circuit Steve Marshall