On Friday, Alabama pursued the execution of Jeffery Lee through lethal injection after his scheduled nitrogen gas execution was halted. The Alabama Attorney General’s office requested the Alabama Supreme Court to issue a death warrant for Lee using lethal injection. State lawyers clarified that the Alabama Department of Corrections (ADOC) was not stopped from executing Lee, but only barred from using nitrogen hypoxia.
This development followed the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to maintain an injunction preventing the state from using nitrogen gas. A district judge had ruled that Alabama’s nitrogen protocol was unconstitutional, citing cruel and unusual punishment. However, the injunction left open the possibility for the state to use lethal injection or the electric chair.
Jeffery Lee, convicted of a double murder during a 1998 robbery, has been on Alabama’s death row since. The jury in his case voted 7-2 for a life sentence without parole, but the trial judge overruled the decision, a practice known as “judicial override.” This practice was abolished in Alabama in 2017.
Alabama has argued that nitrogen gas is a humane alternative to lethal injection, the main method of execution that has been criticized following botched attempts. Legal proceedings challenging the nitrogen gas protocol will continue and are scheduled for trial in 2027.