In brief
In a swift decision, the U.S. Supreme Court denied Alabama’s request to carry out a capital punishment sentence using nitrogen gas. The state had appealed a lower court ruling that deemed the method cruel and unusual. Justices Thomas, Alito, and Gorsuch dissented, whereas the majority upheld the ban. The case revolves around Jeffery Lee, a death‑row inmate convicted of a 1998 robbery‑murder, and echoes a federal judge’s previous ruling that the technique causes severe anxiety and distress before asphyxiation. Alabama’s prosecutors argue the prohibition is a miscarriage of justice, while the Court stressed the gravity of constitutional safeguards.
The U.S. Supreme Court denied an appeal by the state of Alabama that sought to execute death‑row prisoner Jeffery Lee using nitrogen gas, a method the Court said likely violated the Constitution’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment.
Earlier appellate rulings had blocked the use of nitrogen gas on the grounds that it causes inmates severe psychological distress before suffocation, a point that the Supreme Court upheld. The Court issued an unsigned order on its emergency docket, without a written explanation, while Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Neil Gorsuch dissented, saying they would have allowed the execution to proceed.
Alabama, the only state to use nitrogen gas in executions since its introduction in January 2024, has executed seven inmates via the method. Prosecutors in the state described the halted execution as a miscarriage of justice for both the families of victims and the state’s belief in a final act of retribution.
Judge Lee, convicted in 1998 of murdering two people in a pawnshop robbery, had been on death row for more than two decades. A jury had recommended life imprisonment, but a judge overturned the recommendation and imposed a death sentence under a judicial override procedure that has since been abolished.
The state remains prepared to pursue other execution methods to carry out Mr. Lee’s sentence. Alabama’s Attorney General said the halt was unfair to the victims’ families, who had anticipated witnessing justice being served, and pledged to do whatever was necessary to enforce the execution.
