Supreme Court denies Alabama’s eleventh-hour attempt to execute Jeffery Lee by nitrogen gas

Supreme Court denies Alabama’s eleventh-hour attempt to execute Jeffery Lee by nitrogen gas The high court’s decision was reached with a 6-3 vote, though no explanation for the ruling was provided - Bookmark - CommentsGo to comments An Alabama man facing execution by nitrogen gas was granted a reprieve on Thursday after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to overturn a lower-court ruling that deemed the method unconstitutionally cruel. The brief order from the nation’s highest court arrived well past the scheduled time for Jeffery Lee’s execution. The justices opted not to lift an injunction that had blocked Alabama from proceeding with what would have been the country’s ninth execution by nitrogen gas. This decision thwarted a last-minute legal effort by the state to carry out the sentence. A spokesperson for the Alabama Department of Corrections confirmed the execution was off for the evening, stating the state would not pursue an alternative method. The high court’s decision was reached with a 6-3 vote, though no explanation for the ruling was provided. Three conservative justices — Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Neil Gorsuch — indicated they would have granted Alabama’s request to lift the injunction, allowing the execution to proceed. Lee’s legal team, representing the 49-year-old, issued a statement praising the decision and highlighting that his jury had initially voted for a life sentence, which a judge subsequently overruled. "His jury voted for life. Two courts ruled the method unconstitutional. Today, the Constitution prevailed," the statement read. "Now Governor Ivey can finish what the jury started: restore the jury’s verdict of life without parole." Conversely, Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall vowed to continue seeking justice for the victims’ families. In a statement, he asserted, "The State is prepared to do whatever is necessary to see Mr. Lee’s lawful sentence carried out." Marshall further described the ruling as "a miscarriage of justice, not for us, but for Jimmy Ellis and Elaine Thompson, who Jeffery Lee brutally and senselessly murdered and left on the floor of their place of business." He added that he was keeping their families in mind, many of whom were prepared to witness the final act of justice. Prison officials noted that Lee did not request a final meal on Thursday but consumed potato chips, Skittles, water, and a Sprite in the hours leading up to his potential execution. The ruling marks a rare, albeit temporary, victory for opponents of capital punishment in a state known for one of the nation’s busiest death chambers, concluding an intense legal debate over the humaneness of nitrogen gas as an execution method. Legal challenge wended its way through the courts Lee filed a lawsuit challenging Alabama’s protocol as a violation of the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment, and U.S. District Judge Emily Marks ruled the method constitutional in May. But a three-judge panel from the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed her decision Monday, saying the three minutes it could take for an inmate to lose awareness is an “intolerable” time frame “given the suffering that would likely take place under Alabama’s nitrogen hypoxia protocol.” Marks reevaluated the case and ruled again Tuesday saying Lee had shown “that the protocol constitutes cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Eighth Amendment.” The state appealed to the Supreme Court. “If 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,” lawyers with the Alabama Attorney General’s Office wrote. Lee’s 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 “to allow an execution that has been found unconstitutional to proceed.” The decision blocks Lee's execution in the immediate future, but it is unclear how long the reprieve will last. The state maintains that nitrogen is constitutional, and the lower-court order blocks only that method and other means of execution such as lethal injection and the electric chair, both of which are authorized in Alabama. Join our commenting forum Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies Comments