US Supreme Court Blocks Alabama’s Nitrogen‑Gas Execution Plan

Fri Jun 12 2026 20:50:36 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)

The Supreme Court denied Alabama’s emergency appeal, halting a scheduled nitrogen-gas execution of Jeffery Lee who faces a death sentence after decades on death row.

The Supreme Court refused an emergency request by Alabama to carry out a nitrogen‑gas execution of death‑row inmate Jeffery Lee. The decision follows a federal judgment that the method violates the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment after testimony that inmates experience extreme distress. Alabama, one of only two states to use nitrogen gas, has executed seven people since January 2024 and may now seek alternative execution methods.

Supreme Court blocks Alabama’s nitrogen‑gas execution plan

The U.S. Supreme Court denied Alabama’s emergency appeal to execute death‑row inmate Jeffery Lee with a nitrogen‑gas system that was scheduled to take place at 18:00 local time on June 12. The brief, unsigned order on the Court’s emergency docket did not expound on the Court’s reasoning.

The move comes after a federal judge permanently banned the method this week, after a bench trial that found nitrogen hypoxia likely causes inmates severe air hunger, distress, anxiety and physical discomfort before they suffocate. The lower court had earlier blocked nitrogen gas, citing the Constitution’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment.

Alabama, one of the few states to employ nitrogen gas, has carried out seven executions since it introduced the method in January 2024. The state’s top prosecutor said the halted execution was a “miscarriage of justice” and that the state was ready to pursue other methods.

Jeffery Lee, a 49‑year‑old convicted of two murders in a 1998 pawn‑shop robbery, has been on death row for over two decades. A jury had recommended a life sentence, but a judge overruled that recommendation under a judicial override that has since been abolished.

Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall declared the halt “unfair to the families of Lee’s victims” and pledged to see the sentence carried out.

For more context on why Alabama is the only state to use nitrogen gas for executions, read https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-68097008.