Late Thursday evening, the U.S. Supreme Court delivered a stay of execution that captured national attention. By a 6-3 vote, the justices refused to lift an injunction blocking Alabama from carrying out what would have been the nation’s ninth execution by nitrogen gas.
Jeffery Lee, a 49-year-old man convicted of murdering two people during a pawnshop robbery in 1998, was scheduled to die using Alabama’s nitrogen hypoxia protocol. He won’t die tonight.
It’s a fascinating case that touches on constitutional law, the ethics of execution methods, and a particularly contentious feature of Alabama’s criminal justice system: judicial override.
The Legal Journey
The story really begins months ago when Lee filed a lawsuit challenging Alabama’s nitrogen gas protocol as a violation of the Eighth Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment. U.S. District Judge Emily Marks initially ruled the method constitutional back in May.
But then things shifted. A three-judge panel from the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed that decision on Monday, stating that the three minutes it could take for an inmate to lose awareness under nitrogen gas constituted an “intolerable” timeframe given the suffering that would likely occur. Marks then reevaluated the case and ruled Tuesday that Lee had shown “the protocol constitutes cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Eighth Amendment.”
The state appealed to the Supreme Court, asking the justices to step in at the eleventh hour. Alabama’s attorneys warned that a permanent ban on nitrogen gas would be “unprecedented in American history” and would “expand the concept of cruelty well beyond the bounds of the Eighth Amendment.”
The Supreme Court wasn’t convince
d. The three conservative justices — Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Neil Gorsuch — said they would have granted Alabama’s request to lift the injunction. The other six justices opted to let the stay stand, though they didn’t explain their reasoning.
The Method Itself
Alabama began using nitrogen gas for executions in 2024. The protocol involves strapping a respirator to the inmate’s face and replacing breathable air with pure nitrogen, causing death from oxygen deprivation. It’s been used eight times across the country — seven in Alabama, once in Louisiana.
The problem is what happened during those previous executions. According to the AP report, inmates shook, pulled at their restraints, and exhibited labored breathing. During Alabama’s most recent nitrogen execution, 30 minutes elapsed between the inmate showing signs of being impacted by the gas and officials closing the curtain to signal the execution was complete.
The state maintains the method is constitutional and causes no more suffering than other execution methods. But the 11th Circuit panel disagreed, and for now, that disagreement stands.
The Jury Override Issue
There’s another layer to this case that makes it especially noteworthy. When Lee was sentenced, a jury voted 7-5 to give him life imprisonment. But a judge overrode that verdict and sentenced him to death.
Alabama ended the practice of judicial override in 2017, recognizing that letting a judge disregard a jury’s sentencing recommendation in death penalty cases was problematic. Lee’s case is a stark example of why: his jury chose life, a judge chose death, and now the state wanted to carry out that death sentence.
Bestselling author John Grisham weighed in on Thursday, calling on Governor Kay Ivey to honor the jury’s decision and commute Lee’s sentence to life without parole. “The practice of a judge overriding a jury was declared unconstitutional and so indefensible that Alabama itself abolished it in 2017,” Grisham said in a statement. “Jeffery Lee’s jury made its decision.”
What Happens Now
The Supreme Court’s order is a temporary reprieve, but it’s unclear how long it will last. The ruling blocks Lee’s execution via nitrogen gas, but Alabama could potentially try other methods — lethal injection and the electric chair are both authorized in the state.
Governor Ivey said Thursday night that she remained “committed to ensuring that justice is ultimately served for his victims.” Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall promised the families of the victims that authorities would “continue to seek justice” and doing “whatever is necessary to see Mr. Lee’s lawful sentence carried out.”
For now, Lee will live. He spent Thursday evening with potato chips, Skittles, water, and a Sprite — no final meal request.
It’s a strange thing, this pause. Every execution delay brings relief to the condemned and their advocates, while victims’ families are forced to wait again for a resolution that may never come. In this case, the constitutional questions around nitrogen gas are far from settled, and Alabama shows no sign of abandoning the method quietly.
The Supreme Court’s brief order came well after the hour originally planned for Lee’s execution. He didn’t die Thursday. Whether he dies at all, and how, remains one of the many unresolved questions in America’s ongoing struggle with capital punishment.
