ATMORE, Ala. (AP) 鈥� An Alabama man facing the death penalty by was spared Thursday as the U.S. Supreme Court refused to set aside a lower-court ruling that found the method is unconstitutionally cruel, issuing a brief order that came well after the hour originally planned to initiate Jeffery Lee鈥檚 execution.
The justices decided not to lift an injunction blocking Alabama from carrying out what would have been the nation鈥檚 ninth execution by nitrogen gas, rejecting a last-minute legal battle by the state as it sought to carry out the sentence in the evening. A spokesperson for the Alabama Department of Corrections said the execution was off for the evening and the state would not try another method.
The high court voted 6-3 and did not explain its reasoning. Three of the conservative justices 鈥� Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Neil Gorsuch 鈥� said they would grant Alabama鈥檚 request to lift the injunction and let the execution go forward.
鈥淲hile I am disappointed the Supreme Court did not allow the state to proceed with Lee鈥檚 chosen method of execution, I remain committed to ensuring that justice is ultimately served for his victims,鈥� Gov. Kay Ivey said.
In a statement the legal team for Lee, 49, hailed the decision and noted that his jury had voted for a sentence of life, which a judge overruled.
鈥淗is jury voted for life. Two courts ruled the method unconstitutional. Today, the Constitution prevailed,鈥� the statement said. 鈥淣ow Governor Ivey can finish what the jury started: restore the jury鈥檚 verdict of life without parole.鈥�
The ruling was at least a temporary, rare victory for opponents of capital punishment in a state that has had one of the busiest death chambers in the country. And it capped an extraordinary legal back-and-forth over the humaneness of nitrogen gas as an execution method.
The legal challenge in the courts
Lee filed a lawsuit challenging Alabama鈥檚 protocol as a violation of the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment, and U.S. District Judge Emily Marks in May.
But a three-judge panel from the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Monday, saying the three minutes it could take for an inmate to lose awareness is an 鈥渋ntolerable鈥� time frame 鈥済iven the suffering that would likely take place under Alabama鈥檚 nitrogen hypoxia protocol.鈥�
Marks Tuesday saying Lee had shown 鈥渢hat the protocol constitutes cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Eighth Amendment.鈥� The state appealed to the Supreme Court.
鈥淚f that ruling stands, it would be unprecedented in American history. Not only does it portend the first-ever permanent ban on a legislatively enacted method, but it would expand the concept of cruelty well beyond the bounds of the Eighth Amendment,鈥� lawyers with the Alabama Attorney General鈥檚 Office wrote.
Lee鈥檚 lawyers asked the high court to keep the execution on hold, saying in a response that Alabama was asking it to intervene at the eleventh hour 鈥渢o allow an execution that has been found unconstitutional to proceed.鈥�
Prison officials said Lee did not request a final meal Thursday but had potato chips, Skittles, water and a Sprite in the hours ahead of his possible execution.
Marks did not block the state from executing Lee with one of the other approved methods, the electric chair or lethal injection. It is unclear how quickly the state could switch, however.
Nitrogen executions introduced in the state 2 years ago
Alabama began using nitrogen gas to carry out some executions in 2024. The method involves strapping a respirator to a person鈥檚 face and replacing breathable air with , causing death from lack of oxygen.
Nitrogen has been used in eight executions in the United States 鈥� seven times in Alabama and once in Louisiana. Lee was scheduled to be the ninth.
During the previous Alabama nitrogen executions, the inmates shook, pulled at the restraints and exhibited labored breathing. During the state鈥檚 last execution by nitrogen gas, 30 minutes elapsed between Anthony Boyd exhibiting signs of being impacted by the gas and state officials closing the curtain to the viewing room to signal the execution was complete.
The state has maintained that the method is constitutional and causes no more suffering than other execution methods.
Lee, who is currently housed at William C. Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, was convicted of two counts of capital murder for killing Jimmy Ellis and Elaine Thompson while robbing a pawnshop on Dec. 12, 1998.
Prosecutors said Lee entered Jimmy鈥檚 Pawnshop with a sawed-off shotgun and shot Ellis, the owner, and Thompson, an employee.
Alabama no longer allows judicial overrides in capital cases
A jury voted 7-5 to give Lee a sentence of life imprisonment. However a judge overrode that and sentenced him to death.
Alabama of judicial override in 2017 and no longer allows a judge to disregard a jury鈥檚 sentencing decision in death penalty cases.
Bestselling author John Grisham called on Gov. Ivey to honor the jury’s decision and commute Lee’s sentence to life without parole.
鈥淭he practice of a judge overriding a jury was declared unconstitutional and so indefensible that Alabama itself abolished it in 2017,鈥� Grisham said in a statement. 鈥淛effery Lee鈥檚 jury made its decision, the Alabama Legislature later agreed that juries, not judges, should decide life or death sentences.鈥�
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