Supreme Court blocks Alabama's planned nitrogen-gas execution
The U.S. Supreme Court denied Alabama's request to carry out a nitrogen-gas execution, delaying the scheduled execution of death-row inmate Jeffery Lee.
The Supreme Court issued a one-sentence order on Thursday denying Alabama's request to execute Jeffery Lee using nitrogen gas, upholding a lower-court injunction that the method may violate the Eighth Amendment's prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment.
Lee, convicted of a 1998 double murder and slated for execution on July 11, had argued that nitrogen gas could cause prolonged suffocation and severe pain. A federal appeals court had previously found that the state's protocol presented a substantial risk of serious harm.
In the Supreme Court order, Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch did not file a written dissent. The Court has previously required inmates to propose an alternative method that does not raise constitutional concerns; Lee suggested execution by firing squad.
Alabama had argued that nitrogen gas does not cause the type of severe pain associated with historic punishments and cited logistical challenges in assembling a firing squad. The state has used nitrogen gas in eight executions since 2024, seven of them in Alabama.
The ruling postpones Lee's execution, though the death sentence remains in place.
